From the day-book of V. Pell, retoucher, Pell & Sons -- Wednesday morning
This booke is the retoucher's own, kept at the bench and not at the front desk. The Tuesday accounts are settled aboveboard at the counter; the bench keeps its own row of marks. I write here what is to be found on the glass and not what is to be billed.
Yesterday at xj of the clock by the back stair, Miss Vane sent up no. 17 in its own sleeve. Right edge dull; chair-back line heavy at the curve. No proof was struck. The work was: reduce the edge mark; soften the chair-back line; do not varnish. Returned the glass to the office shelf of V.P.R. in the same sleeve as carried up.
Cash settled Tuesday by L.O.'s servant at the door: ten shillings in notes. To the bench account, eight; to the bench drawer, two, marked no studio question. The invoice goes to no studio book.
This morning the office shelf is light at the place where no. 17 should still lie. The boy who carries the kettle says that Miss Reed is not in the darkroom; that there is a paper from a doctor; that the constable came and went without an inventory; that the sleeve is in drawer B.
I do not enter Miss Reed in this booke. I have noted her in pencil on the inside cover, with the date, that I shall remember what was on the shelf this morning and what was not.
-- V. P.