PHYLLIS SETS THE PACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20602, 28 June 1930, Page 19

PHYLLIS SETS THE PACE.

BT EEETHA GUTHRIE.

Phyllis Dana stood by her office table white-faced, and the set' of her red lips was grim. " It's as much as my place is worth," she mattered under her breath. "What on earth shall I do Phyllis was bead typista to Pennant and Company, the big Auckland timber merchants. From her little private office, which communicated cn one side with Mr. Pennant's room and on tha other with the genera! office, she looked down into a part of the yard where stack beyond stack stood piled timber and several railway tracks packed ready for transport from the film's private siding. As she stood silently regarding these things but seeing none of them, she became conscious of the roar of traffic through the busy thorough fare on to which the building "frontage gave. She had just had a shock which for the space of several seconds bad almost bereft her of her usual common sense. Five minutes earlier she had seen the office boy depart with the last batch of j letters fcr the evening mail and having : for the moment, no urgent need for return j to her typewriter, she had been idly | conning her shorthand notes when her ! eye was caught by a pencil correction on j tha margin of one of the letters. It was an extremely important communication. A tender for the woodwork in connection with a great new building. And as poor Phyllis stared dowd at the draft cf the letter she knew that instead of the figures in the margin, she had copied the original figures. It practically meant that the tender would be turned down.

There was nothing else for it but to go straight to Mr. Pennant, and tell him what a fool be had for his head typista. When Phyllis walked straight up to her employer, and touching hixn on the arm to attract his attention, asked, in a queer, taut voice, for a few words with him " privately, on an urgent matter," Jack Redman, tha under cashier, very nearly left his desk close-by to go and ask her if there was anything he could do to help her, and was only restrained by the remembrance of the other clerks' presence. He had been head over heels in love with Phyllis for two years and what hurt her hurt him. Alone with Mr. Pennant, Phyllis in a few words, explained what bad happened. It took every ounce of courage sho possessed, and when she had finished she felt absolutely sure tbat he would forthwith dismiss her. Ha was reckoned a hard man. j Fcr a couple of seconds ho gave her j back look for look, | Then a curious expresric-n crossed the | old lined face. It seemed to Phyllis an i expression of relief! Then the grim Hps i writhed into a smile! j " Sit down, Miss Dane." be said. **You | look a bit tired. Wo will soon straighten i this out." And ha reached for the" tele- ! phone on his desk. Mr. Pennant hung the telephone receiver on its hook and sat back in his chair. " Now for it," sfca thought, as she set her teeth. " Miss Dane. Fve bren looking for a ! person who had the cauraga to tell the truth for a good many years and I faelievo | I've found one. Let ne say at ones that this error cf yours to-day, fortunately averted as you have just, heard over tha 'phone, will not in any way jeopardise your position with me. You must | know as well as I do that I ought to \ ! have read over that letter before sign- ; J ing it. Well, I didn't. I trusted to [ ! your usual corrpctness. 1 o*» you an j apology for my omission. We will cry : j quits." _ j* He paused, and Phyllis half rose. He | motioned her to be seated. I Miss Dane," he began again, but seamed jin a difficulty. Twice his lips parted as j if to speak, and dosed again, j Fm an ojd mail and a lonely one," \ jhe said. " Don't think me quite a fool ias welL No, don't speak," as Phyllis j interrupted with Mr. Pennant!" "As j I say, I'm on old man and one never ; knows when one may die. I wish to | leave all my affairs settled. Last week I I bought a handsome tomb"—Pbvliis was becoming hysterical with relief from high ; tension, but managed to keep her lips straight, by biting them, though her eyes held dancing imps iaad Mr. Pennant been looking. He, however, was rigidly regarding the blo.itiug pad in front of him— \ " and settled everything but the epitaph." ; ' Why if he telling mo this?" she 1 asked herself. " New," ibe continued, "as j test cf t your capacity and courage aa a truthJ teller, I am going to ask yon to write my | j epitaph and bring it to me in a week's j | time. If you can't do it, then I shali wish you a very good-day ana dispense ! with your services at the end of the ' month." j Phyllis gasped Had be gone suddenly > mad T She knew he was eccentric, but > this was more than eccentricity. It was crueL It was outrageous. She rose with what dignity she could She was not smiling now. " I know I deserve censure for my carelessness, Mr. Pennant," she said. ""Your request seems to me a little—strange. But I'll try to do what, you ask. I can t thank . ycu enough for net dismissing me right on. You, at any rate, give me another chance." Back in her room she put cn her hat with a savage pull that hid most cf ber curls, and once grlanced at ber little mirror to sea- if the bat. was on straight. " Well, my dear," she said to herself as she waited on the crowded " island" for her tramcar to come alongside.—" All | you've got to do is to go home and write

it!" S?s months later Phyllis and fcer two sisters—{hey were orphans and had a sins,ll house at Heme Bay—had! just finished breakfast and were preparing to suit each one for bcr respective place cf business, when the postman came. " One for you. Phyllis." called Maud. "All right,*'* replied* Phyllis. " Just put it on the table. I'm changing my shoes." The other two girls awaited the opening of the letter. " Well, of all the inconceivable —! Who would ever bare thought? Gracious. I can't believe!" " Phyllis, for goodness sake get to the end of a sen trace Speak like a rational being, if such a thing's possible," they expostulated, speaking together. I can't," replied Phyllis. ** Read that and tell me I'm not seeing double or going clean daft." And she held out the letter. '* Why,, it's from Westcott and Morquay," cried Olive. " Thev're the big lawyers, aren't they ? Whatever con they write to you about *' Read, read," persisted Phyllis. - Dear' Madam." began Maud, irsting over Olive's shoulder. "We have the pleasure to inform you that under the will of cur late client "Mr. Thomas Pennant, vou are the chief inheritor of his fortune. We shall be glad if y&a can give us an early call—" " Gracious!" cried Olive as Maud paused breathless. " There's no mistake. Phyllis, my child. You're an heiress. Why, old Mr. Pennajat tvas worth £50.000 if he was worth a penny." " I can't take it in." said Phyllis. " You'll take it in all right when von're seen the lawyer people, signed a dozen or two documents, and opened a banking account." replied Maud. " Fqu'U have to give Jack Redman the cold ibouider/* remarked Olive iIEly.

A SEOET STOBT. ■ . (COP TRIGS!.}

:e | " You'll hare to look out Icr a duke now." iS | " Olive!"' cried' Phyllis, blushing funcusly. ' - "■' t " Ob, don't imagine wo don't know what Jack Redman thinks about you," t laughed But Phyllis had ran out of the room.. She returned in a few oirsj ui.es ready dressed for tha street. '* Phyllis," snut Maid. " There's a pes; script to, the letter. P.S. You vriil perhaps- understand better than w& are 3 at present able to do, what cur late client . meant by calling- you his ' Epitaphaliars.' '* " What" on earth did Mr. Pennant 1 mean T' queried Olive. 1 " I never told you' two girls," said f Phyiiis. "It was such' a risky business, j Eui: it's turned out all right. In future j I shall take for my motto—' To thine own self be tree, etc.lt seems thai it ' does pay sometimes to be honest." ■ " Ob, step being moral and tell us what happened," cried Maud, the im- . petuous, " Weil," said Phyllis, " six months ago I made a dreadful blunder in a letter, which I only discovered after it was ' posted. I went straight to Mr. Pennant I and tcud him what had happened, and j so he got the matter straightened oat j r over the telephone before any complications arose. I thought I should certainly > get the sack. You know, Fva often told 1 you what a stern old man he was. Eat ' he looked quite pleasant and motioned to . me to be seated. Then he tcld me that j for a long time ha'd been looking for ' someone who was net afraid to tell the 1 truth, and he believed he'd found that someone in me. As a test he was gaine; i to ask me to write his epitaph and tell . tha truth in it. He said he'd just bought ( a handsome tombstone and as one never knew how soon one might die. he in- ! tended to settle al! things beforehand, I even to his epitaph! ' I was to faring it to ! him within the week, or lose my job if I was afraid to do what my employer asked of me. It seemed to me very eccentric j and rather cruel, but there was only c-ne ; thing to do. Go home and write it." Phyllis paused, and stood looking oat . i of the window. | "Go on," said. Maud. " What did you • j -Vow tha eld man's dead.* said j Phyllis, sighing, " I wish I had net been j quite so frank. I think I hurt him, though he was too honest himself to take offence, What I wrote was—' He was a just .man and might, had he chcsen, have wen not only respect, but love.' And now instead of hating me, he's left me a large slice of his fortune." Tho tears were standing in her eyes as she finished and Olive's hand stole to her sister's shoulder in sympa^&y. " Weil, I must go to the office as ! usual, said Phyllis in a minute. " Don't talk about this extraordinary news to anyone until I've seen the lawyers." If this letter told the truth she would not be head typist to Pennant and Company many more days. Her chief problem was rather an awkward one. She had suspected tor a long time past that Jack Redman loved her. She knew he was the only man in the world for her. But his salary was not great and he had home responsibilities which rendered marriage an impossibility until Death, the Releaser, should come to change tie situation. Phyllis wa3 so much in love that she was prepared to wait for marriage, but slit would have preferred to be definitely engaged to Jack. Now she knew in her innermost heart that if he discovered her strange good fortune before he had declared himself to her, be—well, he wouldn't propose, that was all; and i± was everything to Phyllis. The news might get into the papers. Somehow, he must propose this very day.. This very morning, if she could contrive it. Phyiiis was a modest girl despite tie conclusion at which she hail arrived. AH the same, to lose Jack's love was an unendurable thought. #. ■ * * * ■ • * j Half way through the morning Jack j saw Phyllis, in her outdoor things, enter j the general office. She paused at the head ' clerk's desk, which was next to Jack's, I to say that she fonnd herself short of carbon paper and must go along to the typewriter firm's office for-a fresh supply. Aa she talked she put her purse down en the comer of the desk in order to fast-en her glove. A moment later she passed swiftly out of the office, leaving hex purse behind her. " 1 say, Redman," exclaimed the head clerk. " Miss Dane's gone without her purse. Run after her, quick. Sfea may have no train fare." Jack needed no second bidding. He seized bin hat and Sew out of the office. Too late. Phyili3 was boarding a car when | Jack reached the street door. He was an agile young fellow, and in loss time than it takes to tell, he had leapt on to tie moving car and followed the girl inside. " Miss Dane," he said. " You. Itft your purse on the desk." " Yes, I know," was the unexpected reply. . , , " But, don't you want it?" he asked, rather disappointed and feeling he was perhaps making a fool cf liimself. " Not if you're here to pay my fare," answered she. " Wen t you step and pay for me V He needed no pressing. Hang the old office for an hour! While Phyllis' face was upturned to his with that provocative smile, he didn't care what the other office fellows thought or said. When they alighted he_ proposed icecreams at a gay little caie which stood invitingly at hand. A newspaper boy stood outsida the door and* his headline placard read—- " Wealthy . merchant leaves fortune to girl tvpiste." „ " Wait just a moment. Miss Dane, said Jack. "TU get a paper and we'll see who the fortunate girl is." " Ob, never mind the paper," cried Phvilis "Fm dying for that ice," and ! so 'alluring was she "that the young man followed her, leaving _ the newsboy with a paper outstretched in his hand. The morning was extremely hot and they chose a table by an open window at the* back of the large airy room. " What did you "mean just now," said Jack to his companion, " by saying yon knew you bad left your purse behind you ? Yon rather roused my curiosity." "If you really want to know," said Phyiiis, l * I wanted someone to run after me." " Wanted someone to run after you: was the incredulous reply. " Mr. Thompson, for instance ?" ' " Mr. Thompson!" scoffed PhySii9. " Wasn't thsre someone nearer the door than Mr. Thompson V S " Phyiiis !** cried Jack. "Do yon know ' what you're doing ? Or are you a heartless flirt? I've ioved you for years. You must know it. It's* only my lack of money that's kept me silent. Fve no right" to speak now, but you tempt me beyond endurance." The table was partly screened from ibe rest of the room by a large palm. Phyllis stretched her hand across until it met his and was lost in his warm clasp, j "As if money mattered," she cried. I " I thought you'd never propose and that i fd have "to do it. myself before the cat was I out of the bag." j " What cat and which bag ?" asked hear j bewildered lover. "Go and get that paper now, will yen. I and see who the lucky typista is?" was j the enigmatical and apparently irrelevant answer. He got his. first kiss behind the friendly • palin before ha did her bidding. When he returned with the newspaper { he quickly found the news ha was locking * fcr. " Phyllis Dane!" ha cried. " Did you know this when you list me kiss you ?" " Yes." replied she, " yoa wouldn't have done it if you'd read tha paper first r 1