“That’s as near heart disease as I care to come,” she said, turning at his “Beg pardon.”  “There hasn’t been a man in this place for two weeks, much less a woman.  Yes, I can stake you for a match.  I keep them for those insurance fellows—­nice boys they are, too.  You see,” she continued, not averse to prolonging the conversation, “our business is mostly outside.  Hear about the sky-scraper we’re building in Elwood?  Three stories!  One of the best little towns in Indiana, all right.  Say, the janitor service in this old ark is something I couldn’t describe to a gentleman.  If there’s anything in these microbe fairy stories we’ll all die early.  You might as well know the worst:—­they do light housekeeping on the third floor and the smell of onions is what I call annoying.  Oh, that’s all right; what’s a match between friends!  The last man who had your office—­you’ve taken sixty-six?—­well, he always got his matches here, and touched me occasionally for a pink photo of George Washington—­stamp, ha! ha! see!  He was real nice and when his wife dropped in to see him one day and I was sitting in there joshing him and carrying on, he was that painfully embarrassed!  I guess she made him move; but, Lord, they have to bribe tenants to get ’em in here.  To crawl up one flight of that stairway you have to be a mountain climber.  I only stay because the work’s so congenial and it’s a quiet place for reading, and all the processions pass here.  The view of that hairdressing shop across the way is something I recommend.  If I hadn’t studied stenography I should have taken up hairdressing or manicuring.  A little friend of mine works in that shop and the society ladies are most confidential.  I’m Miss Rose Farrell, if you tease me to tell.  You needn’t say by any other name it’s just as sweet—­the ruffle’s a little frayed on that.”

Bassett had stipulated that his name should not appear and he suggested that Dan place his own on the door.  Later, when he had been admitted to the bar it would be easy to add “attorney at law,” Bassett said.  Each of the three rooms of what the agent of the building liked to call a suite opened directly into the hall.  In the first Harwood set up a desk for himself; in the second he placed the library, and the third and largest was to be Bassett’s at such times as he cared to use it.  Throughout the summer Harwood hardly saw Bassett, and he began to regret his reluctant assent to a relationship which conferred so many benefits with so little work.  He dug hungrily at the law, and felt that he was making progress.  Fitch, who was braving the heat in town, had outlined a course of reading for him, and continued his manifestations of friendliness by several times asking him to dinner, with a motor ride later to cool them off before going to bed.