gress in this way, than in manners, and leave her callers standing out in the cold.
"I don't know as we ever should, had it not been for Quimby," said Miss Archer, glancing curiously around the office. "I believe I never was in a telegraph office before. Don't you find the confinement rather irksome?"
"Sometimes," Nattie replied; "but then there always is some one to talk with 'on the wire,' and in that way a good deal of the time passes."
"Talk with—on the wire?" queried Miss Archer, with uplifted eyebrows. "What does that mean? Do tell me, I am as ignorant as a Hottentot about anything appertaining to telegraphy. Nearly all I know is, you write a message, pay for it, and it goes."
Nattie smiled and explained, and then turning to Quimby, asked,
"You remember my speaking about 'C,' and wondering whether a gentleman or lady?"
"Oh, yes!" Quimby remembered, and fidgeted on his chair.
"He proved to be a gentleman."
"Oh, yes; exactly, you know!" responded Quimby, looking anything but elated.
"It must be very romantic and fascinating to talk with some one so far away, a mysterious
