Gabriel Samara

Miss Sadie Loyes, the manageress of the Hotel Weltmore Typewriting
and Secretarial Bureau, set down the receiver of the telephone
which had its place upon her desk and studied thoughtfully the
eleven young ladies who comprised her present staff. She stood
there, an angular, untidy-looking person, tapping a pencil against
her teeth, unconscious arbitress, not only of the fate of two very
interesting people, but also of the fate of a great nation.
Portentous events depended upon her decision. A man'...