Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/231

 pleasant experience for you. Then come back to the office and write the story while it is fresh. Turn it in to me when you 've finished it and go home for a good rest. Of course we won't expect you down to-morrow, as we 'll have your copy all ready for the first edition in the morning. I 've told Henderson to take you to a few places only, but they 're typical, and you 'll get the atmosphere. Are you going, Matthews?"

With words much too emphatic that youth declared that he was not, and reiterated his reasons, to which the managing editor lent but an indifferent ear. He had turned to his desk and was deep in the election returns again, so that he did not even hear Miss Van Dyke's timid "good-night" as she left his office. He had, in fact, forgotten her and her assignment within five minutes after her departure. This was not the case with the now miserable Matthews.

When Miss Van Dyke returned to the office at two o'clock in the morning she found that young man awaiting her with anguish on his brow. He had confided to all his associates on the "Evening Globe" the