This of course looked ominous.

What was he doing?
She could not discover.

For his partner, over the telephone, was far from satisfactory.

Now that he had Joe back again in that beloved office of theirs, his manner toward Ethel seemed to her to be gruff and unfriendly, to say the least.

"Stand-offish to the last degree--as though he believed he could handle Joe all by himself!" she thought in annoyance.