“Mr. Brown!  Mr. Robinson!  Mr. Brown!  Mr. Robinson!”

The monotonous, shrill voices of the pages as they wearily made their rounds calling out the names of invisible guests, the orders of clerks and doormen, the chattering and laughing of the people as they passed and re-passed up and down the corridors made a perfect babel of conflicting sound.  The afternoon was now well advanced.  The crowds had begun to dispense.  There was more breathing space in the passages.  For the time being the rush was over and Virginia sat back in her chair, glad of a moment’s respite after the busy day.  She saw nothing and heard nothing of the commotion all around her.  The noise and the crowds in the hotel lobby did not exist for her.  Her thoughts, in spite of herself, were far away, with the man who before God’s altar had solemnly promised to shield and protect her, and then permitted her to go out alone in the cold, unsympathetic world to earn her own living as best she could, without even making an effort to find how or where she was.  With all his faults, she had always thought Robert kind-hearted.  Why, then, should he have treated her in this cruel, heartless, indifferent manner?  A man’s voice suddenly aroused her from her words.  In a cold, business-like tone it said: 

“Are you busy?  I have some letters to dictate.”

Instantly aroused to a sense of her duties, Virginia sat up with a start.  Without looking up, accustomed to be at the beck and call of the first stranger who came along, she said wearily: 

“No, I’m not busy.  I’ll take the dictation.”

The newcomer sat down at her desk.  Virginia slipped a piece of paper into her machine and was ready to begin.  Suddenly the man uttered an exclamation.  She looked up and nearly fell from his chair.

“Mr. Hadley!” she exclaimed.

It was her husband’s most intimate friend.  Chance had brought him to the hotel and having some business letters to write, he had stopped at the desk of the first stenographer who appeared to be unoccupied.  When he saw who the young operator was he could scarcely believe his eyes.  With a gesture of the greatest concern, he exclaimed: 

“Mrs. Stafford!  You here?”

She smiled sadly.

“Yes.  I’ve been here some time, ever since—­” She stopped short, not knowing how much he might know of her difference with her husband.  As yet the world knew nothing of the scandal that had shattered a home and as far as she was concerned it never would.  After a pause she added timidly:  “You see I am not rich—­I have to support myself.”

Hadley leaned forward and sympathetically grasped her hand.  He had always liked Virginia.  Her womanliness and spirit appealed strongly to him.  Stafford had treated her like a brute.  He ought never to have let her go.  Many a time he had berated his friend for what he termed his pigheaded obstinacy.

“Oh, Mrs. Stafford!” he went on warmly.  “I had no idea you were here.  How noble and plucky it is of you—­”