corner, but she did not know how to get out of it. She told herself that she was merely infatuated with Fraser and would get over it, but meanwhile her feelings kept her from enjoying the company of other men because they all fell so far short of him.
Late one evening as Catherine was working, Fraser came back to the office unexpectedly after attending a play. She looked up, startled, as he walked in.
“ What in hell are we running here?” he growled.“ A slave ship?”
“ I wanted to finish this report,” she said,“ so you could take it with you to San Francisco tomorrow.”
“ You could have mailed it to me,” he replied. He sat down in a chair opposite Catherine and studied her.“ Don’ t you have better things to do with your evenings than get out dull reports?” he asked.
“ I happened to be free this evening.”
Fraser leaned back in the chair, folded his fingers together and dropped them under his chin, staring at her.“ Do you remember what you said the first day you walked into this office?”
“ I said a lot of silly things.”“ You said you didn’ t want to be a secretary. You wanted to be my assistant.” She smiled.“ I didn’ t know any better.”“ You do now.” She looked up at him.“ I don’ t understand.”
“ It’ s very simple, Catherine,” he said quietly.“ For the past three months, you’ ve really been my assistant. Now I’ m going to make it official.”
She stared at him, unbelievingly.“ Are you sure that you …?”
“ I didn’ t give you the title or a salary raise sooner because I didn’ t want it to scare you. But now you know you can do it.”
“ I don’ t know what to say,” Catherine stammered.“ I— you won’ t be sorry, Mr. Fraser.”
“ I’ m sorry already. My assistants always call me Bill.”“ Bill.”
Later that night as Catherine lay in bed, she remembered how he had looked at her and how it had made her feel, and it was a long time before she was able to go to sleep.
Catherine had written to her father several times asking him when he was coming to Washington to visit her. She was eager to show him around the city and introduce him to her friends and to Bill Fraser. She had received no reply to her last two letters. Worried, she telephoned her uncle’ s house in Omaha. Her uncle answered the phone.
“ Cathy! I— I was just about to call you.”