ELLA:  Shall I leave the tray?

GIBSON:  No; you can take it. [She moves to do so.] Wait a minute.  Here’s a letter from John Riley, up at the factory.  Don’t I remember his son Tom coming here to see you quite a good deal?

ELLA:  Yes, sir; Tom’s one of the factory truckmen like his father.  He still comes to see me quite a good deal, sir.  There isn’t anything about that in the letter, is there, sir? [She knows there isn’t.]

GIBSON [absently]:  No, no! [With faint irony.] He only wants to know about where to get a stock of truck parts that had been ordered before I broke connections with the factory.  He thinks four months is a long time for them to be on the way and doesn’t know where to write.

ELLA:  He’s a terrible active man, Mr. Riley.  Always pushing.

GIBSON:  So Tom comes round more than ever, does he?

ELLA [coyly]:  He does, sir!

GIBSON:  I’m not going to lose you, am I, Ella?

ELLA:  Well, sir, up to the time of that change in the factory we hadn’t expected we could get married for maybe two years yet, but the way things are now—­not that I want to leave here, sir—­but it does look like going right ahead with the wedding!

GIBSON:  Tom feels that prosperous, does he?

ELLA:  I guess he is prosperous, sir!

GIBSON [gravely digesting this]:  Well, I suppose I’m glad to hear it.

ELLA:  Yes, sir; everybody’s glad these days up at the factory, sir.  I don’t mean about just Tom and me, they’re glad.

GIBSON:  You mean they’re all in a glad condition?

ELLA:  Oh, are they, sir!  Even the Commiskeys got an automobile last month!

GIBSON:  Well, I suppose that’s splendid.

ELLA:  Didn’t you know about it, sir?

GIBSON:  No, not a word.  I’ve been pretty deep up in the Maine woods this summer.  Have you been over to the factory at all yourself, Ella?

ELLA:  Yes, sir; visitors can go round just as they like to.  They’re glad to have you.

GIBSON:  When you’ve been over there, Ella—­you know which one is Miss Gorodna, don’t you?

ELLA:  Oh, yes, sir!  She’s one of the best in managing, Miss Gorodna.

GIBSON:  You—­did you—­have you happened to see her?

ELLA:  Yes, sir, once or twice.

GIBSON:  Did she—­ah—­did she look overworked?

ELLA:  Oh, I shouldn’t say so, sir.

GIBSON:  She looked well, then?

ELLA:  Yes, indeed, sir!  Everybody’s so happy up there; I don’t suppose none of ’em could look happier than she is, sir!

GIBSON:  They are all happy, then?

ELLA [laughing joyfully]:  You never see such times in your life, sir! [A bell rings in the house.] I’ll answer the bell.

GIBSON:  I’ve finished this, Ella.

ELLA:  Yes, sir. [She takes the tray and goes into the house. GIBSON opens another letter, reads it. ELLA returns.]