Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/242

 another thing that's worse. I'm in the position of the author of 'The Deceased Wife's Sister.' Everything I write is compared with that wretched Tenderloin story and found wanting. 'Give us another as good as that,' the editors say, and when I turn in the copy they look it over and grumble, 'Well, this is pretty good, but it is n't a patch on your election night special.' It's just as Mr. Wheeler said the next day. I shall never live it down, and yet I'm chained here, and there's no chance of my getting away."

The tears filled her eyes as she spoke. She openly wiped them away, glad that no one saw them but this loyal friend, who had been so faithful.

Matthews seized his opportunity, clever man that he was.

"Let me give you an assignment," he said earnestly. He leaned over her desk and took from her little hand the pen with which she had been drawing erratic designs on her desk blotter as she spoke.

"Drop this," he said urgently, his dark face flushed with earnestness. "Drop it for all time and come to me. Let me take care