£0 ANGEL PAVEMENT

won't be so easy. We're spending as little as we can,
here in the office."

"Dash it all, Smeeth, I know that/' Mr, Dersinghara
rubbed his cheek irritably. "But we shall have to spend
less. I don't want to do it-I want to do the decent
thing by everybody here-but you see how it is, don't
you. Must cut something down. Now look here, to
begin with, there's Turgis. What's he getting? A
hundred and seventy-five, isn't he? And Miss Matfield?
We started her at three pounds a week, didn't we?"

'That's right, Mr, Dersingham. It was less than
she'd been getting before, but she said she'd start at that
with us, and then we'd see about giving her a rise when
she'd settled down with us. She's a very capable girl,
very capable, and very intelligent, too, much better than
the last we had; no comparison at all."

"And Turgis? What about him?"

"I can't really grumble, sir," replied Mr. Smeeth.
"He does his best. He's a bit careless sometimes, I'll
admit, and he's not to be trusted far with figures yet
-you remember the terrible mess he made of the books
when I was on my holidays this year?—but as these boys
go nowadays, he's as good as the next. He doesn't take
the interest in his work and in the firm that I did when
I was his age, but then they don't these days, and that's
all yo-u can say about it. Miss Matfield's just the same,
for that matter. She does her work all right, but she's
not interested, doesn't think of herself, you might say,
as one of the firm, but just comes in the morning, does
what she's told to do, and then goes in the evening."

"Thinking about young men, that's what they are,
all these typewriters," said Goath. "Young men and
dancing and going to the pickshers, that's what's run-