“I don't know that it is necessary to be specific,” said the doctor, apparently now that the issue was joined, finding his task easier.
“I must insist!” cried Hy, on his feet now. He was thinking--“What has she told him? What does she know? What does she know!”
Hy sat down. His chief moved the mission house a trifle to square it with the edge of the desk.
“To mention only one occasion,” went on the doctor's voice--“though many are known to me, I am well informed regarding the sort of life you are known to be leading. You see, Mr. Lowe, you must understand that the office atmosphere of _My Brother's Keeper_ is above reproach. Ability alone will not carry a man here. There are standards finer and truer than--”
A rhetorical note was creeping into the man's voice. He turned instinctively to sec if Miss Hardwick was catching the precious words as they fell from his lips; then with his eyes on her empty chair he floundered.
The telephone rang. Hy, with alacrity grown out of long practise in fending for his chief, reached for it.
“Oh, Mr. Lowe--” It was the voice of the pretty little telephone girl: “It's a lady! She simply won't be put off! Could you--”
“Tell him,” said Hy with cold solemnity, “that I am in an important Conference.”
“Very well--ask him to leave his number. I can not be disturbed now.”
He hung up the receiver. “Doctor Wilde,” he said in the same Solemn tone. “I realize of course that you are asking for my resignation. But first I must know the charge against me. There has been an attack on my character. I have the right to demand full knowledge of it.”
“To mention only one occasion,” said the doctor, as if unaware of the interruption, still fussing with the mission house, “you were seen, as recently as last evening, leaving a questionable restaurant in company with a still more questionable young woman.”
So that was all he knew! Hy breathed a very little more easily. Then the telephone rang again, and Hy's overstrained nerves jumped like mad. “Very well,” said he to the pretty telephone girl, “put him on my wire.” And to his chief: “You will have to excuse me, Doctor. This appears to be important.” He rose with extreme dignity and left the room.
Once within his own office he stood clinging to the door-knob, breathing hard. It was all over! He was fired. He must begin life again--like General Grant. His own telephone bell was ringing frantically. At first he hardly heard it. Finally he pulled himself together and moved toward the desk. It would be Betty, of course. She ought to have more sense! Why hadn't she stayed up-state with that new husband of hers, anyway! Wasn't life disastrous enough without a very much entangled, contrite Betty on his own still more entangled hands.