— Oh how is he? She’d paused where the carpeting started.
— Beaton? He’s…
— Uncle John, I meant to…
— Oh the Governor, don’t worry about him they don’t make them like him anymore, they won’t match those steel gray eyes of his with all the corneal transplants in the world right now all he’s burned up about are those bridge games he’s missing on the train down this way, I’m down this way…
— I, thank you Mister Davidoff, I do think Mister Beaton has some papers for me to sign, it’s just a family matter…
He caught his balance and plunged into the stream of carpet beside her, regaining that half step ahead as though to avoid a confrontation of heights as his, no longer buoyed by the sharp punctuation of his heels, seemed to drop in consonance with the confidential lowering of his tone. — Of course you won’t have to get into these other details with Beaton, means well but he hasn’t got what it takes for an on the spot decision like your dad or the Governor glad I was on deck when you came in, of course I know your dad could use me in that Washington spot but he probably needs me here to keep an eye on the store while this corporate reorganization goes through things coasting along without the top man for these on the spot decisions… He rounded the corner in a side step, — next time you talk to your dad you might want to suggest…
— I’ll tell him you’ve been awfully helpful Mister Davidoff, and now…
— Yes you might want to put in a word… he got in ahead of her with an arm out for the phone. — Better grab Crawley while I have a minute, straighten him out on this oh Miss Bulcke, straighten him out on this brush fire in Gandia tell Beaton Mrs Joubert is here… he dialed, — tell him she’s in a hurry.
— Yes he’s expecting you Mrs Joubert. How nice to see you.
— Hello Shirl? Hold on. I’ll be rounding up these proofs while you kill some time with Beaton. Shirl? Put Crawley on, I…
— Mister Beaton was in Mister Cutler’s office, Mrs Joubert. I think he expects…
— Shirl just tell him I’ve got Mrs Joubert here on the, Shirl? Hold on. Cutler’s back?
— He’ll be with you in just a moment Mrs Joubert.
— What’s Cutler doing back.
— Mister Cutler is still away, Mister Davidoff.
— Well what’s Beaton doing in Shirl? Hello? Crawley?
Buttons blossomed with light at the telephone’s base and Miss Bulcke pushed one. — Oh I meant to press hold…
— Hello?
— Hello…?
— Hello? Hello? Shirley what the hell is going on here.
— I think it’s Mister Davidoff calling you Mister Crawley, he…
— Well I can’t waste the, just tell him I’ve got someone with me… and the phone disappeared under a massive hunch of tweed. — Now sir. This is your aunts’ telephone stock is it? twenty, thirty, joint tenants all the way are they? fifty…
— My aunts? yes well they, no they live together yes but they’ve owned the house for a long time in fact it’s been in the fam…
— No no in this stock ownership I mean seventy, eighty joint tenants with rights of survival just means if one of them should ninety, expire, five…
— Well, well yes I mean Aunt Julia had some trouble with her colon once but…
— I see yes, yes we don’t need to turn this into a medical discussion Mister, Mister… a slip of paper came crushed from his hand — Bast yes, Mister Bast, rather elderly ladies I take it?
— Oh yes yes they’re both quite, but does that make a diff…
— No difference at all no just occurred to me, don’t see these very often any more you know picture of the globe here with wires running round it ten, twenty…
— But they’re not, there’s nothing wrong with them is there? I mean I think it’s about all my aunts have for…
— Nothing wrong with them at all no forty, fifty just a good many years since they issued certificates in these separate denominations isn’t it sixty, seventy like currency yes five, six, didn’t sign them though did they, eight…
— Sign them?
— Wise enough precaution yes considering the ah… he paused to raise his sight across the blotter’s green as he might have over some desolate savanna, — the circumstances yes just pick up a handful of stock powers from Shirley out there as you leave let them sign those and mail them in no problem at all now, do we have an asking price?
— Well, well no I guess whatever you…
— Just want to sell them at the market then, do they?
— The, yes the Stock Market yes if somebody…
— The market price Mister Bast… his hand stalked the black box beyond the confines of the green, — when we say at the market we mean at the market price… his hand leaped, — going at forty-four and an eighth yes I’ll try to get you a quarter…
— A quarter? but…
— Want to sit still and wait for a half you can try it but I look for it to close off two or three points, already a little overbought at forty-four…
— Oh well forty-four yes forty-four dollars that’s fine yes they’ll be very pleased, I think they said once it cost about twenty-three…
— Had a couple of splits in there too haven’t they, come off quite nicely yes…
— Splits? but…
— Three for one when was it, ’fifty-nine? Selling around seventy when it split two for one in ’sixty-four yes come off quite nicely, now what’s this.
— What? Oh that yes that’s some other stock another aunt of mine got a long time ago, it says nineteen eleven down in the corner there it was just in the drawer with this telephone stock and they thought I might as well…
— Norma Mining Company? Pretty thing isn’t it.
— Yes right there under the eagle it says par value ten cents per share so a thousand shares would be worth a hun…
— Pretty thing yes, take my advice Mister Bast. Frame it.
— Frame it?
— Or just use it to, don’t mean to be indelicate just use it for toilet paper.
— The, but it says right there…
— Nothing better to do write to the Attorney General in Montana, probably tell you this Norma Mining Company defaulted on its taxes the year this was issued never even lived to see nineteen twelve. Mining schemes Mister Bast, mining schemes, that all of it then? Good of you to drop by Mister Bast, like to chat with you but I’m a busy man can’t be too, wait now wait what’s all this…
— No well you see this is just the portfolio of a, of an associate of mine who…
— A what…? the end of the battered thing came off with a tug at the zipper, — portfolio?
— Yes well you see he understood that brokers offer to review the contents of a, of one’s portfolio and when I mentioned I was coming in to sell this telephone stock he…
— But the, what in the hell is all this?
— Yes well it’s the ah, I hadn’t really looked in it myself it’s the contents of his portfolio you see he’s not very…
— But it’s, my God Mister Bast nothing here but a lot of trash… his hand pawed ribbons of newspaper and smeared envelopes, prospectuses, the Dines Letter, Moody’s Midyear, Value Line Survey — having a little joke, are you?
— Oh no no he’s very serious he, you see I just offered to help him I’d stopped to pick up a check he was going to cash for me but the computer had made a mistake on it and since he was, since I was a little short of cash I…
— Mister Bast I am a busy man, I think…
— No no wait just that, what’s that…