On the following morning Mitchell explained to Mr. Comer that in stepping out of the bathtub he had slipped and wrenched both shoulders, then while passing through the dark hall had put his face into mourning by colliding with an open door.  His ankles he had sprained on the way down-town.

About nine-thirty Miss Dunlap called up, but not to leave an order.  When she had finally rung off Louis looked dazedly at the wire to see if the insulation had melted.  It seemed impossible that rubber and gutta-percha could withstand such heat as had come sizzling from the Santa Fe.  From what the lady had said it required no great inductive powers to reason that the rate clerk had told all.  Coming victorious to Miss Lackawanna’s door to have his knuckles collodionized he had made known in coarse, triumphant language the base commercialism of his rival.

The result had been that Phoebe arose in her wrath.  Just to verify the story she had called up the other railroad offices this morning, and the hideous truth had come out.  It had come out like a herd of jack-rabbits ahead of a hound.  Miss Dunlap was shouting mad, but Phoebe herself, when she called up, was indignant in a mean, sarcastic manner that hurt.  The Northwestern rang Mitchell to say good-by forever and to hope his nose was broken; the Big Four promised that her brother, who was a puddler in the South Chicago steel mills, would run in and finish the rate clerk’s job; Miss Gratz, of the C.&E.I., was tearfully plaintive and, being German, spoke of suicide.  Of course all business relations with these offices were at an end.

During that whole day but one ’phone order came, and that was from Miss Monon.  Mitchell had been steeling himself to hear from her, but it seemed that she took the whole thing as rather a good joke.  She told him she had known all the time why he came to see her, and when he reminded her that it was Thursday she invited him to call if he thought it worth while.

When he saw Miss Harris at supper-time and undertook to explain his black eyes she assured him coldly that he and his ebony gig-lamps mattered nothing in her young life, as evidence of which she flashed a magnificent three-quarter carat diamond solitaire on her third finger.  She and Mr. Gross expected to be married inside of two or three years if all went well, she told him.

At eight o’clock, disguised behind a pair of blue goggles, Louis headed for Miss Monon’s door, glad that the cozy corner was so dimly lighted.  When he arrived she bathed his battle-scarred features with hamamelis, which is just the same as Pond’s Extract, but doesn’t cost so much, and told him the other girls had acted foolishly.  She was very sweet and gentle with him and young Mitchell, imperfect as was his vision, saw something in her he had never seen before.

A week went by, during which it seemed that all the railroads except the Monon had suddenly gone out of business.  It was as if a strike had been declared.  Another week passed and Mitchell’s sales were scarcely noticeable, so Mr. Comer called him in to ask: