Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/168

 woman who had called at the editorial rooms of "The Searchlight " with original poems, which she had confidingly left in his keeping. He described her as a tall, gaunt woman of middle age, very plainly dressed, and with exceedingly pleasant manners. So favorably, indeed, did Miss Abbott impress Tim that instead of immediately losing her original poems, as was his custom, he had kept them to return to her when she came again, as she had left no address. These poems he brought to Miss Herrick's desk, and she recognized at once the angular writing she had seen on the card. The manuscripts were yellow and dust-covered. Apparently Miss Abbott had no intention of reclaiming them. Miss Herrick looked over the original poems. They were crude efforts, hopeless from the editor's point of view. She sighed as she returned them to the boy, and realized that this clew led her no nearer to the present whereabouts of the writer.

She did not immediately forget her unknown friend. If she had been inclined to do so the little scissors on her dressing-case and the stamp-box on her desk would have