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A cco and the click of a counter turning to thirteen, Marcia pushed open the Manuscriptorium door and walked into the front office The front office was elected air to it It made Marcia realize how much Beetle, as Front Office Clerk, had actually done The place had always looked clean and well organized, and even though the as piled high with books and papers (and the occasional sausage sandwich), it had a tended look to it, as though someone actually cared

Marcia marched up to the desk - which was streith papers, crumbs and candy wrappers - and rapped on it sharply She inspected her knuckles with distaste; they were sticky and smelled of licorice Marcia didn&039;t like licorice

"Shop!" she yelled ilass screen that divided the Manuscriptorium itself from the front office burst open and none other than the Chief Hermetic Scribe, Miss Jillie Djinn herself, nation

"This is a place of study and concentration, Madam Marcia," she said crossly

"Please respect that Have you come to pay your bill?"

"Bill?" Marcia bristled "What bill?"

"Invoice nu For the "

Marcia sniffed "I believe we are in dispute about that"

"You may be in dispute, but I a to dispute"

"What ever," said Marcia, catching a word and intonation that Septi "Now, I have an appoint her feet ihed She looked around for the daybook and finally extracted it from under the pile of papers on the desk She turned the thick creareat deliberation

"Now, let me seeah yes, well, you have missed that appointment by two minutes and" - the Chief Her from her rotund waist - "fifty-two seconds"

An exasperated noise escaped Marcia

Jillie Djinn ignored it "However, I can give you an appointment in seventeen days&039; time atlet me seethree-thirty-one precisely," she said

"Now," snapped Marcia

"Not possible," retorted Jillie Djinn

"If Beetle were here - "

"Mr Beetle has left our employment," Jillie Djinn said frostily

"Where&039;s your new clerk?" asked Marcia

Jillie Djinn looked unco Even she was beginning to doubt the wisdoed elsewhere"

"Indeed? What a surprise Well, as you are so short staffed it seeo down to the Vaults unaccompanied"

"No That is not possible" The Chief Hermetic Scribe folded her ar her to disagree

Marcia ht to inspect the Vaults at any time, and it is only as a matter of courtesy that Ihere I intend to go to the Vaults right now"

"But you went there only last week," Jillie Djinn protested

"How true And I intend to do it every week, every day and every hour that I consider it to be necessary Stand aside"

With that Marcia swept by and threw open the door in the thin partition that led into the Manuscriptoriuht for a old coin - a double crown - on the front office desk "That should fix your , Miss Djinn Get a decent haircut with the change"

The scribes exchanged glances and suppressed sh the lines of tall desks, well aware that twenty-one pairs of eyes were following her every move She pushed open the secret door in the bookshelves and disappeared into the passageway that led to the Vaults The door closed behind her, and Partridge said,

"Meooooow!"

To Partridge&039;s delight the newly appointed Inspection Clerk, Roled