Katharine started a little, as if the announcement disturbed her thoughts.
"That won't make any difference, will it?
I mean the lease isn't signed," she replied.

"But why?
What has happened ?" He told her, in an off-hand way, how one of his fellow-clerks had broken down, and might have to be away for months, six months even, in which case they would have to think over their position.

He said it in a way which struck her, at last, as oddly casual.

She looked at him.

There was no outward sign that he was annoyed with her.