Then the last person on his list entered the room. She was described as Miss Penelope Noelson, companion to Mrs. Gertstein.

She was a girl of perhaps twenty-two, not tall, but exquisitely proportioned. Fair hair surmounted a vivacious face, which was relieved of the insipidity of mere beauty by a determined chin, a humorous touch that lurked about the corners of her mouth, and a nose very slightly inclined to what her friends described as retroussé , but which she herself bluntly declared to be snub. On the whole she was such a girl as might make a man turn to take another look⁠—a girl not so much beautiful as piquantly pretty.

At the instant of her entrance Labar was engaged with his well-fed stenographer. She had reached the table he was using, and one hand rested lightly upon it, ere he was able to give her any attention.