单选题 .  Katherine walked into a newspaper office, and demanded to see the editor. Fortunately, the editor was passing the inquiry office when she asked for him. Seeing she was a girl of school age, he thought it might offer him an amusing five minutes between interviews.
    Katherine was very rude to him when he told her they didn't accept schoolgirls. She said she was surprised that the editor of a great London newspaper did not know how to behave like a gentleman. The editor sat back in his chair and laughed heartily. He had never been spoken to like that in his life. He rather liked it for its novelty. After some further conversation, in which Katherine attempted to persuade him that she could do anything he wanted, from writing a leading article to a serial story, she said: "I am not going to leave this room until you put me on the staff!"
    Then the editor had to speak to her rather seriously, and told her what a great London newspaper meant to a girl and how utterly ignorant she was of everything that would make her useful as a journalist. Upon this Katherine burst into tears, and the editor, who had dismissed many men in the course of his career, walked up and down the room wondering what he could do for this extraordinary young girl whose tearful eyes were so full of disappointment.
    "Look here," he said, "if you come to me in two years' time, with a knowledge of shorthand, and if you promise not to shed tears on my blotting-paper, I will give you something to do."
    "Really? If you don't mind, I'll have it in black and white," said the girl.
    The editor was startled. He began to think that this young girl was not so young as she looked. He drafted out an agreement for her on the lines laid down with a great deal of solemnity (严肃) which he found quite amusing, for he was confident that the young girl might quite as well change her mind or would be engaged to a nice boy long before the agreement took effect.1.  The real reason why the editor decided to interview the girl was that he ______.