It was owing to him that the city was divided into a series of
zones, so that notification of an emergency could be made rapidly
by telephone and messenger. Owing to him, too, was a new central
office, with some one on duty day and night. Rather ironically,
the new quarters were the dismantled rooms of the Myers
Housecleaning Company.
On the day after his proposal to Edith, Willy Cameron received an
unexpected holiday. Mrs. Davis, the invalid wife of the owner of
the Eagle Pharmacy, died and the store was closed. He had seen
Edith for only a few moments that morning, but it was understood
then that the marriage would take place either that day or the next.
He had been physically so weary the night before that he had slept,
but the morning found him with a heaviness of spirit that he could
not throw off. The exaltation of the night before was gone, and
all that remained was a dogged sense of a duty to be done.
Although he smiled at Edith, his face remained with her all through
the morning.
"I'll make it up to him," she thought, humbly. "I'll make it up to
him somehow."
Then, with Ellen out doing her morning marketing, she heard the
feeble thump of a cane overhead which was her mother's signal.
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