Tetlow debated.

“It’s highly improbable that anyone else will discover these irresistible charms.  There’s no one else hanging round?”

“No one, as I told you the other day, when you questioned me about her.”

Norman shifted, looked embarrassed.

“I hope I didn’t give you the impression I was ashamed of loving her or would ever be ashamed of her anywhere?” continued Tetlow, a very loverlike light in his usually unromantic eyes.  “If I did, it wasn’t what I meant—­far from it.  You’ll see, when I marry her, Norman.  You’ll be congratulating me.”

Norman sprang up again.  “This is plain lunacy, Tetlow.  I am amazed at you—­amazed!”

“Get acquainted with her, Mr. Norman,” pleaded the subordinate.  “Do it, to oblige me.  Don’t condemn us——­”

“I wish to hear nothing more!” cried Norman violently.  “Another thing.  You must find her a place in some other office—­at once.”

“You’re right, sir,” assented Tetlow.  “I can readily do that.”

Norman scowled at him, made an imperious gesture of dismissal.  Tetlow, chopfallen but obdurate, got himself speedily out of sight.

Norman, with hands deep in his pockets, stared out among the skyscrapers and gave way to a fit of remorse.  It was foreign to his nature to do petty underhanded tricks.  Grand strategy—­yes.  At that he was an adept, and not the shiftiest, craftiest schemes he had ever devised had given him a moment’s uneasiness.  But to be driving a ten-dollar-a-week typewriter out of her job—­to be maneuvering to deprive her of a for her brilliant marriage—­to be lying to an old and loyal retainer who had helped Norman full as much and as often as Norman had helped him—­these sneaking bits of skullduggery made him feel that he had sunk indeed.  But he ground his teeth together and his eyes gleamed wickedly.  “He shan’t have her, damn him!” he muttered.  “She’s not for him.”

He summoned Tetlow, who was obviously low in mind as the result of revolving the things that had been said to him.  “Billy,” he began in a tone so amiable that he was ashamed for himself, “you’ll not forget I have your promise?”

“What did I promise?” cried Tetlow, his voice shrill with alarm.

“Not to see her, except at the office, for a week.”

“But I’ve promised her father I’d call this evening.  He’s going to show me some experiments.”

“You can easily make an excuse—­business.”

“But I don’t want to,” protested the head clerk.  “What’s the use?  I’ve got my mind made up.  Norman, I’d hang on after her if you fired me out of this office for it.  And I can’t rest—­I’m fit for nothing—­until this matter’s settled.  I came very near taking her aside and proposing to her, just after I went out of here a while ago.”

“You damn fool!” cried Norman, losing all control of himself.  “Take the afternoon express for Albany instead of Harcott and attend to those registrations and arrange for those hearings.  I’ll do my best to save you.  I’ll bring the girl in here and keep her at work until you get out of the way.”