E-text prepared by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) THE PRICELESS PEARL THE PRICELESSPEARL BY ALICE DUER MILLER AUTHOR OF"Manslaughter," "Come Out of the Kitchen," "Are Parents People?" etc. NEW YORKDODD, MEAD & COMPANY1924 Copyright 1923, 1924By Alice Duer Miller Alice Duer Miller Printed in U. S. A. THE PRICELESS PEARL CONTENTS CONTENTS PAGE [Pg 1] [Pg 1] THE PRICELESS PEARL CHAPTER I "The girl is simply too good-looking," said Bunner, the office manager, in a high, complaining voice. "She is industrious, intelligent, punctual and well-mannered, but simply too good-looking—a disturbing element in the office on account of her appearance. I made a grave mistake in engaging her." The president, who had been a professor of botany at a great university before he resigned in order to become head of The Universal Encyclopedia of Necessary Knowledge