"Won't you be seated for a few minutes ?" They sat down in the same impersonal way and glanced around the room with eyes that seemed to see nothing.

By the side of the mantel was a framed piece of history, an itemized bill of the first generation of the firm, dated June 28, 1706, and quaint with its old spelling, its triple column of pounds, shillings and pence.
"May I look at that ?" asked one of the accountants, rising.

The other followed him.

Their heads bent over the document....

It occurred to Mary that they were verifying the addition.
Again the door opened and this time it was Burdon, his dashing personality immediately dominating the room.
Mary introduced the accountants to him.
"With our new methods," she said, "we probably need a new system of bookkeeping.