friend of the two families stepped in and effected a reconciliation, but his decision was that the girl must go. It did not look well for two boys of their age--just beginning in business--to have as handsome a woman as that in the office. People might talk.
It was after this--some time after--that Pearl took the place with the Encyclopedia company. Her record began to tell against her. Everyone wanted to know why she changed jobs so often. She thought she had learned her lesson--not to beam, not to be friendly, not to do anyone favors. She had made up her mind to stay with the Encyclopedia forever.
She had had no hint of danger. She hardly knew the third vice president by sight--someone in the office had told her a silly story about his crying one day, but she hadn't even believed it. And now she had lost another job--and in July, too, when jobs are hard to find.
Heretofore she had always gone docilely. But now she felt she could bear it no longer--she must tell someone what she thought.
It was four o'clock on a hot summer afternoon, and round the board-room table the members were saying "aye" and "no" and "I so move," while their minds were occupied with the questions that do occupy the mind at such times--golf and suburban trains, and whether huckleberry pie in hot weather hadn't been a mistake--when the glass door opened and a beautiful girl came in like a hurricane.