She touched it gently, as she had touched it once before that morning, and then she spoke to it as if he were sitting there, and as she would not have spoken, had he been sitting there.
"You didn't want gratitude, did you ?" she whispered, with sad lips.
Soon she smiled at the blue ribbons, patted the chair gaily on the back, and, seizing upon pencil and pad, dashed into her work with rare energy.
She bent low over the desk, her pencil moving rapidly, and, except for a momentary interruption from Mr.Tipworthy, she seemed not to pause for breath; certainly her pencil did not.

She had covered many sheets when her father returned; and, as he came in softly, not to disturb her, she was so deeply engrossed she did not hear him; nor did she look up when Parker entered, but pursued the formulation of her fast-flying ideas with the same single purpose and abandon; so the two men sat and waited while their chieftainess wrote absorbedly.

At last she glanced up and made a little startled exclamation at seeing them there, and then gave them cheery greeting.

Each placed several scribbled sheets before her, and she, having first assured herself that Fisbee had bought his overshoes, and having expressed a fear that Mr.Parker had found her umbrella too small, as he looked damp (and indeed he _was_ damp), cried praises on their notes and offered the reporters great applause.
"It is all so splendid!" she cried.

"How could you do it so quickly?
And in the rain, too! This is exactly what we need.