For an hour after leaving Charles’s office, Nicholas could do no work. He sat at his desk, thinking about the beautiful young woman still inside with Charles and Ned. The time passed very slowly. Then at last, Ned Cheeryble came out of Charles’s office.
‘Is she better?’ asked Nicholas.
‘Who?’ replied Ned.
‘Oh, yes, she’s fine now.’
Nicholas tried to find out more about her from him, but Ned was strangely silent all that afternoon.
During the next few days, the young lady came and went many times. Her talks with the Cheeryble brothers were always secret, and they always happened inside Ned’s or Charles’s office, behind closed doors. Nicholas often tried to find out more about her, but the Cheeryble brothers never talked about her with him. Day after day Nicholas thought of her more and more. He wanted to tell his sister about her. But what could he say? He didn’t even know the young woman’s name.