Before the day was over, system had been introduced, and the "Herald" was
running on it: and all that warm, rainy afternoon, the editor and Fisbee
worked in the editorial rooms, Parker and Bud and Mr. Schofield (after his
return with the items and a courteous message from Ephraim Watts) bent
over the forms downstairs, and Uncle Xenophon was cleaning the store-room
and scrubbing the floor.
An extraordinary number of errands took the various members of the
printing force up to see the editor-in-chief, literally to see the editor-
in-chief; it was hard to believe that the presence had not flown--hard to
keep believing, without the repeated testimony of sight, that the dingy
room upstairs was actually the setting for their jewel; and a jewel they
swore she was. The printers came down chuckling and gurgling after each
interview; it was partly the thought that she belonged to the "Herald,"
their paper. Once Ross, as he cut down one of the temporarily distended
advertisements, looked up and caught the foreman giggling to himself.
"What in the name of common-sense you laughin' at, Cale?" he asked.
"What are you laughing at?" rejoined the other.
"I dunno!"
The day wore on, wet and dreary outside, but all within the "Herald's"
bosom was snug and busy and murmurous with the healthy thrum of life and
prosperity renewed. Toward six o'clock, system accomplished, the new
guiding-spirit was deliberating on a policy as Harkless would conceive a
policy, were he there, when Minnie Briscoe ran joyously up the stairs,
plunged into the room, waterproofed and radiant, and caught her friend in
her eager arms, and put an end to policy for that day.
But policy and labor did not end at twilight every day; there were
evenings, as in the time of Harkless, when lamps shone from the upper
windows of the "Herald" building. For the little editor worked hard, and
sometimes she worked late; she always worked early. She made some mistakes
at first, and one or two blunders which she took more seriously than any
one else did. But she found a remedy for all such results of her
inexperience, and she developed experience. She set at her task with the
energy of her youthfulness and no limit to her ambition, and she felt that
Harkless had prepared the way for a wide expansion of the paper's
interests; wider than he knew. She had a belief that there were
possibilities for a country newspaper, and she brought a fresh point of
view to operate in a situation where Harkless had fallen, perhaps, too
much in the rut; and she watched every chance with a keen eye and looked
ahead of her with clear foresight. What she waited and yearned for and
dreaded, was the time when a copy of the new "Herald" should be placed in
the trembling hands of the man who lay in the Rouen hospital. Then, she
felt, if he, unaware of her identity, should place everything in her hands
unreservedly, that would be a tribute to her work--and how hard she would
labor to deserve it! After a time, she began to realize that, as his
representative and the editor of the "Herald," she had become a factor in
district politics. It took her breath--but with a gasp of delight, for
there was something she wanted to do.