“You can’t be loyal to her and to me, too. She fired me yesterday.”

“Oh, Damaris,” said the blonde girl sympathetically. “What happened?”

“This,” said Damaris indicating her dark short locks.

“Just because you had your hair bobbed? But you ought to have known. She won’t allow any clerk in the store with bobbed hair.”

“It’s a wonder she doesn’t insist that all the men let theirs grow in a braid,” said Damaris scornfully. “Powdered hair and a queue would just suit her, I’ll bet.”

“I’m very sorry you lost the position,” said Millicent. “You really liked reading to her.”

“Well, yes, in a way. I liked the salary; but it cramped my style awfully to go near the woman. I was always deadly afraid I’d say something that wasn’t in the book, and I used to repeat ‘prunes and prisms’ all the way from my house to her gate to get ready. I’ll never look at a prune again, nor go near a prism.”

“Wasn’t she agreeable to work for? I never spoke to her, but she comes through the store quite often to look things over, and I think[48] she’s wonderful. You can feel her power—something like Queen Elizabeth. Just think of her grit coming back here this afternoon. Everybody says she had a miraculous escape. It must have been an awful shock.”

[48]

“I take a little comfort out of that,” remarked Damaris coolly. “You may be sure it was the man that was nearly killed. She’s indestructible, all right.”

The girls glanced down at the seat of honor where Miss Frink was enthroned during the last speech of the afternoon, preluding adjournment of the leading citizens to the banquet.

“How did you get the position, Damaris?”

“Through my unbearable cousin, Leonard Grimshaw. He’s her secretary.”

“Well, you’re an ungrateful rascal!” laughed Millicent. “I’ve seen Mr. Grimshaw often in the store”—the speaker caught her breath and turned grave. “He calls for grandpa’s rent, too.”

“That nose of his,” said Damaris, “got its shape entirely from poking into other people’s affairs.”

“Who is the pretty lady with white hair who is with him so often?”

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