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"She spoke to me about leaving before I told her I had found her another job." Norman debated but for only a moment. "I do not wish her to leave," he said coldly. "I find her useful and most trustworthy." Tetlow's eyes were fixed strangely upon him. "What's the matter with you?" asked Norman, the under-note of danger but thinly covered. "Then she was right," said Tetlow slowly.
Tetlow showed that he was much cheered by Norman's revived interest in life. But he went away uneasy; for the last thing Norman said to him was: "Don't forget that address!" But it chanced that Norman met her in the street about an hour after Tetlow's call.
Bert was glad Flossie and Freddie were not in the room, for the kindergarten children did not assemble for morning exercises with the larger boys and girls. Flossie and Freddie might have been frightened at the solemn talk. For a moment Bert could hardly believe what he had heard. He was wanted in Mr. Tetlow's office! It did not seem possible. And there was but one explanation of it.
Tetlow's insults were to him no more than the barkings of a watch dog, and one not at all dangerous, but only amusing. "I must see her. If you are her friend, and not merely a jealous, disappointed lover, you'll advise her to see me." "You shall not see her, if I can help it," cried his former friend. "And if you persist in annoying her " "Don't make futile threats, Tetlow," Norman interrupted.
Tetlow's pasty sallowness took on a dark red tinge. He looked at her in surprise. "You don't understand, Miss Dorothy," he said. "He wants to marry you." "I understand perfectly," replied she, with the far-away look in her blue eyes. "But I'll not marry him. I despise him. He frightens me. He sickens me." Norman clinched his hands and the muscles of his jaw in the effort to control himself.
Rarely did anybody go there excepting when sent by a teacher because of some infringements of the rules. Nan went to school early that afternoon, and as soon as she had left Bert and the two younger twins, she marched bravely to Mr. Tetlow's office and knocked on the door. "Come in," said the principal, who was at his desk looking over some school reports. "If you please, Mr.
Tetlow's fat, smooth, pasty face of the overfed, underexercised professional man became a curious exhibit of alarm and obstinacy. "You've got to promise me you'll keep away from her except at the office for say, a week. Then we'll see." Tetlow debated. "It's highly improbable that anyone else will discover these irresistible charms. There's no one else hanging round?"
"There's a chance that within six months or so perhaps sooner Burroughs and Galloway may end their truce and declare war on each other. If so, Galloway will win. Anyhow, the Galloway connection would be better than the Burroughs connection." Norman looked at Tetlow shrewdly. "How do you know this?" he asked. Tetlow's eyes shifted. "Can't tell you. But I know." "Galloway hates me." Tetlow nodded.
Norman knocked them away good-naturedly, and he and Tetlow climbed into Tetlow's hansom. "To my place," suggested Tetlow. "No, to mine the Knickerbocker," replied Norman. "I'd rather you went to my place first," said Tetlow uneasily. "My wife isn't with me. She has left me," said Norman calmly. Tetlow hesitated, extremely nervous, finally acquiesced.
Norman, his hand still on Tetlow's shoulder, was staring ahead with a terrible expression upon his strong features. "If she could see the inside of me the part that's the real me I think she would love me or learn to love me. But she can only see the outside this homely face and body of mine.
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