[
 {
  "chunk": 577,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "A new, vacant-looking typist is tried on the boss's son's dictation and types out every aside word for word, including his instructions to her.",
  "predicament": "A timid new hire tried on the boss's own work takes every word literally and produces nonsense."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 578,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "The boss's son tells the senior clerk to keep her on figures and away from the old man; Torchy works three hours with her on tables, finds her accurate, and when he says so she gives him a shy, grateful smile.",
  "predicament": "Someone newly senior works alongside the office's laughing stock, finds her capable, and a word of thanks lights her up."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 579,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "The typist is the butt of the office for her old-fashioned clothes and plain looks; Torchy is surprised to see her walk off hand in hand with a sturdy young man.",
  "predicament": "Someone who dismissed the office's plainest outcast as friendless is startled to see a devoted young man waiting for her."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 580,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "Teased, she solemnly explains the young man studied an ancient language with her at college in their small Midwestern home town; she says she dislikes the city.",
  "predicament": "Someone teasing a solemn colleague about her sweetheart gets only earnest, literal answers about home and study."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 581,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "She says crowds terrify her and tells how, at twelve, a cyclone killed her whole family in front of her; Torchy stops joking and understands her blank stare.",
  "predicament": "Someone who mocked a strange colleague's blank stare learns it comes from a childhood catastrophe that killed her whole family."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 582,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "Raised by a clergyman uncle, she worked her way through college meaning to become a missionary; her sweetheart gave up a good job to follow her and try to stop her going. Then Torchy goes to find the boss's son at his club.",
  "predicament": "A devoted young man gives up a good place to follow the woman he loves, who cannot see why he came."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 583,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "At the club a successful playwright friend of the boss's son complains that no actress can play a part he wrote around a strange, plain woman he once met.",
  "predicament": "A successful creative man complains that no one can fill the role he wrote around a stranger who haunted him."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 584,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "He describes a clumsy new waitress at a remote summer hotel who obeyed every request to the letter, serving even ice cream on hot plates.",
  "predicament": "A demanding guest remembers a clumsy new servant who carried out every passing wish to the absurd letter."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 585,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "She would stand and stare at him while he ate; told to look elsewhere, she stared at the ceiling instead, and her blank, awkward plainness fascinated him.",
  "predicament": "A self-absorbed guest was unnerved by a servant's blank, unwavering attention, and never thought to ask what she was thinking."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 586,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "He wrote her into the play until it centred on her; he traced the hotel but not her, and the boss's son bets him dinner that Torchy can find her.",
  "predicament": "A boss boasts to a friend that his quick-witted junior can find a nameless stranger the friend has searched for."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 587,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "From the description and the Midwest detail, Torchy guesses it is the new typist; the playwright recognises her, and she is called into the private office, as wooden as ever.",
  "predicament": "Someone junior matches a stranger's description to an overlooked colleague, and wins the boss's bet on the spot."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 588,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "She does not recognise the playwright until he mentions hot plates; then she recites all his fussy preferences, and he realises she had been staring to memorise his wishes.",
  "predicament": "A self-important man learns the servant who stared at him was only trying hard to remember his every whim."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 589,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "He apologises and offers her the part at a large salary, but she refuses because she means to be a missionary; Torchy says he and her sweetheart will persuade her.",
  "predicament": "An overlooked, earnest colleague refuses a dazzling offer for the sake of a duty she has set herself."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 590,
  "story": 43,
  "summary": "Together they talk her into signing; she plays herself and packs the theatre, and her sweetheart, now doing well, gets the contract for the sign bearing her name.",
  "predicament": "Someone junior and a devoted sweetheart talk a reluctant colleague out of her plans and into sudden success."
 }
]