Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/36

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

had gone out, and a most personable young man called. She was quite alone, her notes had all been transcribed, and she had forgotten to bring down a new novel.

Informed that her employer was not in, the young man turned to leave, but, seizing the first conversational straw that blew her way, she exclaimed: "Oh, you are not Mr. Beveridge, then?"

The young man shook his head, but paused with his hand on the door-knob.

"I just thought you might be, because Mr. Blank has been expecting Mr. Beveridge for several days, and I know he would want him to wait."

The young man leaned against the door and remarked that she had a very pleasant office. His desire to hurry seemed to have fallen from him. When he went away he had a pretty good idea why his chief competitor, Beveridge, was mixing in with Blank. And the girl lost her position, because in her frantic effort to make conversation she had dropped just enough clues to her employer's affairs to make him trouble.

As a rule, the woman who advances most rapidly in her trade or business is the one who talks the least while on duty. This does not mean being stupid when addressed, but simply in knowing just when to stop talking, how to talk intelligently on topics connected with the