itself was a joy to the new official.

No hesitating--"Please, sir, who is the gentleman,"--no timid waiting on
any languid understrapper's pleasure for this one. A short pause; his
dark eyes swept the room from wall to wall; his black head bent
respectfully and not without appreciation toward the pretty
stenographer; and then, before the leisurely office boy thought it time
to rise and ask what he wanted, he was at the rail-gate. And when the
gate did not at once swing open, he stepped lightly over it; and
singling out from all the furtively smiling males the head clerk, he
charged straight across the floor toward that important person's desk.

And the head clerk, who was also the head wit, took a peek at him
coming, and very politely said, "Pray be seated?" And, also very
politely, "From whence came you and what willst thou?"

The chuckling heads bobbed above the rows of desks. The head clerk
himself had to gaze window-ward to smother his smile.

"Gramercy, kind sir--"

"Gramercy? Eh, what? Gramercy?"

"Gramercy Park--you know where Gramercy Park is? Or didn't you ask me
where I came from?"

"Oh-h-Oh-h, yes."

"Of course, and I'm after a berth as pump-man on your oil ship sailing
to-day for the Gulf."