When Mr. Gibb entered he found Mr. Hooper in a state of agitation; there was nothing very amazing in that, as he had found him in that condition on previous occasions; but it seemed to Mr. Gibb that, in his agitation then, there was a quality which was new. Mr. Hooper assailed him the moment he was past the door.  
"Now, Mr. Gibb, you have been and gone and done it."
 
"Done what, sir?"
 
"I think it's extremely possible that you've laid yourself open to an indictment for conspiracy."
 
"Have I, sir?"
 
"You brought Miss Lindsay here?"
 
"Excuse me, sir, but if you'll remember you told me to ask her to come."
 
"You put me up to it."
 
"I merely happened to mention that she was looking for something to do, and so she is."
 
"No she isn't."
 
"Isn't she, sir?"
 
"No, she's found it! And that's where I'm in a position to prove conspiracy. Mr. Gibb, do you mean to tell me that Miss Lindsay has been pawning her things?"
 
"I hope you won't let it go any further, sir."
 
"Do you think I'm---- What do you think I am?"
 
"I haven't thought, sir; only it happened to come to my knowledge, and it seemed to me to be a sad thing for her to have to do."
 
"All I can say is that she hasn't pawned all her things."
 
"No, sir, but she soon would have done."
 
"Have you any idea of how much that dress cost which she had on? to say nothing of the hat!"
 
"Not exactly, sir, I haven't; but my sister told me that some of her things must have cost a good bit of money."
 
"That dress cost every penny of five-and-twenty or thirty pounds, and I dare say the hat cost another tenner; and she's been walking about in those kind of things her whole life long, I'm sure of it."
 
"I told you, sir, she was a lady born and bred."
 
"Mr. Gibb, you see advertisements for a lady, as barmaid; when I think of that I don't want to think of Miss Lindsay as a lady; she's on a different plane; she's of heaven, not of earth."
 
"I told you, sir, she was high as the heavens above me."
 
"So she is; you were right there; although the construction of your sentence is faulty, Mr. Gibb. She's a divinity among women; a poem among girls; the ideal which a man sets up for himself of what a woman may be when God chooses."
 
"Is she, sir?"
 
"Look at her! how she walks, how she moves, how she bears herself! And what a voice! had Orpheus had it he'd have needed no warbling string to aid him to draw 'iron tears down Pluto's cheek!' Then what beauty's in her face; but there's in it what not one beautiful woman in a thousand has, there's a soul! Mr. Gibb, I've only seen Miss Lindsay about twenty minutes, but I regard her as 'a perfect woman, nobly planned'; and I may add 'she was a phantom of delight, when first she gleamed upon my sight,' therefore I say you were guilty of conspiracy in luring me on to ask her to come here; because what has the result been?"
 
"What has it, sir?"
 
"The result has been that I've made an idiot of myself; a complete and perfect ass."
 
"Have you, sir?"
 
"I don't like your tone, Mr. Gibb, it exacerbates. It is in itself enough to prove your guilt. Had you not been engaged in a conspiracy you would have been surprised beyond measure at the wholly unforeseen result. But, as it is, I put it to you, Mr. Gibb; are you surprised?"
 
"Well, sir, in a way I can't say I am, not exactly."
 
"There you are! there you are! Do you know, Mr. Gibb, that I've given Miss Lindsay to understand that I've retained her services as a member of my staff?"
 
"She told me you'd engaged her, sir."
 
"Oh, she did, did she? What did she tell you I'd engaged her as?"
 
"As jobbing secretary, sir."
 
"And pray what is a jobbing secretary?"
 
"That's what I was wondering."
 
"She asked me what a jobbing secretary was; and I explained as clearly as I could under the circumstances, and considering that I don't know myself. When you reflect on the fact that I have engaged her to be something which I never heard of before you will have grasped the initial difficulty of my position; which is complicated by the further fact that she is, what she certainly is, a divinity among women. If she'd come, say, about twelve and leave before one; or if she'd spend a few hours daily in intellectual conversation with me in here; or if she'd come out with me to enjoy the air, say on the top of an omnibus; or even if she'd go out with you, for a little pedestrian exercise, from two to six; the situation might be lightened. But she'll do none of these things; she's as good as said so. She told me, with a delicious seriousness which took all idea of resistance clean out of me, that she meant to do a man's work for a man's wage. Now, Mr. Gibb, in this office I don't see how it's going to be done."
 
"I'm sure I don't."
 
"I don't do a man's work."
 
"No, sir, you don't."
 
"You do still less."
 
On this point Mr. Gibb was discreetly silent; he seemed to be turning something over in his mind, of which he presently gave Mr. Hooper the benefit.
 
"I think, sir, I've got an idea of something you might give Miss Lindsay to do."
 
"Let's have it; you know, Mr. Gibb, any pearls of wisdom which you may drop are always welcome."
 
"You remember, sir, when I first came you gave me some papers which you said I might copy when I'd nothing else to do."
 
"I have some dim recollection of something of the kind. Well, have they been copied?"
 
"No, sir, they haven't."
 
"How long have you had them?"
 
"Oh, rather more than two years."
 
"Then it's time they were copied. What papers are they?"
 ............