Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

“ I'm afraid you are just a little inclined to overlook the human element. After all, Graves, what is more valuable in an employee than zeal? A—er—person who works with zeal and loyalty is, to my mind, very much more desirable than one of your efficient, soulless machines. The human element, Graves, the human element! This—er—Miss Clare seems to be most earnest. ”

“ I know—”
“Look here, Graves!” said I. “I'll try your Miss Clare in my department—”
“She's not my Miss Clare,” he returned, with vigor. “She's—” He got up. “I'll tell you what,” he said. “She's an albatross! You know the story about the fellow who had one tied round his neck, and couldn't get rid of it.”
“That's not very chivalrous,” said I.
“Well, I'm not paid to be chivalrous,” he said. “I know she's a fine girl—a—a lovely girl; but she's out of place here. She can't do one darned thing well enough to deserve a salary for it. ”

“ She smiled at me, as she passed, with the air of a lady who never neglects her social obligations, but I fancied her lips quivered a trifle.
“Poor girl!” I thought. “She's out of place here. She hasn't the stuff in her for a competitive worker. She'll never get on!”
I was so sympathetic to Graves that he told me the story of the interview.
“The poor girl's worried sick,” he said. “It seems she's trying to support her mother, and she's so desperately afraid she won't make good that she can't do her work. She does try, you know, and she's fairly accurate, but she's slow, and she knows it. ”

“ Graves,” said she, “about your 'Suggestions'—I have been in this office six years, and have never seen a peekaboo waist. I have not observed that openwork hosiery has been worn. My department has asked me to mention this to you, as we feel it an unmerited slight. Incidentally, Mr. Graves,” she added, “girls don't as a rule wear waists in a ballroom. Even stenographers have some knowledge of etiquette!”
The conscientious Graves bought a household periodical, and found no mention of peekaboo blouses and openwork stockings. ”

“ Naturally, she knew our excessive dislike for paper being wasted; and after a while I saw her stealthily stuffing those crumpled sheets into a drawer, where they wouldn't be noticed. Then, suddenly, she straightened her shoulders, gave a despairing glance round the office, pulled all the paper out of the drawer, and put it into the wastebasket. ”

“ Graves.”
And she went away like Pallas Athene from a battleground.
I honestly pitied Graves, he was so wretched.
“Well, you know,” he said, “she's right. It does upset the routine, and so on; but, hang it all, that girl simply couldn't stand being discharged! She has pluck enough, and all that, but she's sensitive. She's too darned sensitive entirely. I wish to Heaven she'd picked out some other office to start in! She's got some fool idea in her head that it's the first job that makes or breaks you. It's no use pointing out her faults to her; she knows 'em. She's trying to overcome them ”

“ I observed.
“Well,” said Graves, “there's more than one sort of stamina. It takes some grit for a girl brought up as she's been to tackle the job of supporting herself and her mother, I can tell you!”
I agreed with him, and said so, and he was delighted; but he paid heavily for his kind-heartedness. Miss Kelly let the thing go on for one week. Then, on Saturday morning, she appeared before him.
“Mr. Graves,” she said, “after due consideration, I have decided that the only course for me is to leave this office. ”

“ We can't have quite the tone I'm sure we should all like to have in this office while some of our young ladies wear peekaboo waists and openwork stockings, and put paint and powder on their faces. In a ballroom these things are all well enough, but— The next morning he received a visit from the severe and efficient Miss Kelly. ”

“ There's not only her business career that she's so interested in, but she does almost all of the housekeeping as well. She's a wonderful manager, and so clever with her needle! Ah never saw a girl so handy in the house. Of co'se Ah know a girl with her brains and education is just naturally adapted for business, but—” She stopped, with a smile. “Ah'm an old-fashioned woman, Ah reckon. ”