Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/20

 to run through a brief but expressive pantomime descriptive of the work before her. This habit had endeared him to the members of the staff.

The managing editor cleared a chair by an energetic sweep of one arm, and, still smiling, looked keenly at the girl through his half-closed lids. Then he asked abruptly: "How much do you know about the Brandow case?"

Ruth Herrick's heart leaped suddenly. Was he going to give her that famous case after all? She had hinted last week that she wanted it, but he had sent Marlowe instead. Marlowe, she had noticed, had made an ignominious failure of it. She smiled inwardly as she recalled the column of vague conjecture and suggestions sent in the day before by that unhappy young man.

"I know that Helen Brandow is accused of having poisoned her husband," she replied quietly, "and that the evidence against her is purely circumstantial. I am familiar with all the theories that have been advanced, including Mr. Marlowe's surmises in 'The Searchlight' this morning."