A Business Career

XXI

138 She had said nothing to him about Miss Smith. On second thoughts it wasbetter to seem to ignore the girl's existence.A woman who worked for her living could hardly prove, upon a fair field, a formidable rival to Matilda Wedderburn, whose social and other advantages ought easily, with a man like Wendell Truscott, to outweigh mere youth and beauty.If they were not to compete on even terms—but Miss Wedderburn blushed for the thought, it was unworthy of her and of Wendell Truscott. Nevertheless, she resolved to keep her eye on this youngwoman, and to learn, asoccasion offered, something of her antecedents and present circumstances. As Miss Wedderburn swept out of the office, she glanced at Stella with a cold smile, and as their eyes met, each was conscious of a distinct feeling of antagonism. XXI. Stella had been verybusyfor aweekor ten days.Mr. Truscott's scheme was making rapid headway, as she knew from the tenor of his replies to the letters received at the office. The most important letters, as well as carbon copies which Stella made, were kept under lock and key in Mr. Truscott's desk, or put away in the safe by his own hand. She found herself becoming more and more interested in the enterprise, and more deeply impressed than ever by Mr. Truscott's intellectual clearnessof vision and comprehensiveness of grasp. Viewing the situation from the inside, she was able to see the whole plan of campaign and watch the course of events ascould no one elsebut Truscott himself. 139 For Stella had gathered from the correspondence that not even any one director of the corporation knew all the details of Truscott's plan. Of one he distrusted the discretion—he was liable to talk; of another the intelligence—he could not appreciate the importance and delicacy of certain negotiations . Truscott never seemed to question Stella's discretion and dictated to her letters so confidential that the recipients were told to return or destroy immediately. Stella could not at first but feel flattered, by these marks of confidence. It seemed as though her employer regarded the matter as settled, once for all, bywhat he had first said to her. She was conscious later on, of a slight feeling of pique that he never said anything further to show his appreciation of her trustworthiness. She would have liked to know certainly whether this silence grew out of the perfection of his confidence , or whether he had so small an opinion of her intelligence as to suppose that she could not appreciate the importance of what passed through her hands. There was a certain humiliation in the thought that this masterful, resourceful man might regard her as a mere piece of office furniture—a modern business appliance, like the telephone or the telegraph. Shehad noticed that men called the writingmachine and the operator "typewriters," indiscriminately; whether the custom grew out of a poverty of language or a confusion of ideas she did not know. In either event the fact was not flattering to the operator's intelligence. Stella, who was prone to introspection, ascribed this annoyance at her employer's seeming obliviousness to what could be its only source—the desire to so impress Wendell 14O Truscott with her intellectual capacity that he would properly respect it when called to task for his past misconduct. She had learned to admire the force of Truscott's character,and wished him, when in the future they should meet upon a more equal footing, to think ashighly of her own.Thus she accounted for the seeming incongruity of her desire to gain the good opinion of a man whom she had everyreason to despise and hate. It was therefore with a thrill of exultation that she received from him one morning a decided mark of the highest confidence . She had brought in her transcript of the first batch of letters dictated, when Truscott said:— "Miss Smith, I wish you to take more complete charge of my correspondence. I will give you the combination to my private safe, and will expect you to file with your own hands such letters asI shall indicate. I have n't the time to do it, and I can trust you." He showed her how to open the safe, and as the thick door swung open under his manipulations of the lock, Stella viewed with heightened pulse...