THEY GO HOME 549

away, then? Just see if you have? Yes, there you are-
that's it. Bring it here and I'll answer it now. Poppett
and Sons, Poppett and Sons," Mr. Smeeth repeated idly
as he re-read their letter. "Ye-es. Are you ready? No,
half a minute, though-my mistake. 111 have to check
that figure. Fi-ifty fo-our pounds, thi-irte-een shillings-
yes, yes, that's all right. Now then—" And here Mr.
Smeeth adjusted his eyeglasses and cleared his throat,
giving a faintly pompous little cough. Even now, the
thought that he, Herbert Norman Sineeth, was sitting
there, a cashier, dictating letters to this firm and that,
gave him a thrill "—er—We are in receipt of your—
er—communication—put the date in there, Miss Sellers-
respecting our statement of account dated so-and-so-and
beg to point out that this account was quite in order.
You asked us to send down the goods by special road
delivery and agreed that the extra carriage, paid by us,
should be added to our account-no, just a minute-
extra caniage, which had to be paid by us in the first
place, should be charged to you, and this we accordingly
did. Wt refer you to your letter—I have a note of that
letter—ahl here it is-to your letter of the 4th of
December last—*'

Mr. Smeeth rounded off his letter and Miss Sellers
hurried it away to her machine. Miss Matfield, who
appeared to be in a great hurry, pulled a sheet of paper
out of her typewriter with one fine sweep of the hand,
and then furiously tidied a little pile of typewritten
sheets. The new boy, Gregory, laboriously worked away
at his letter copying, with the air of a man engaged in
not very hopeful bacterial research. It was wearing away
like any other Friday afternoon. There was nothing to
suggest that it might blow up any minute, unless the