“Oh, that was in August. I’ve almost forgotten about it.”
“You should have had it done last spring, not during your vacation.”
“I didn’t want to have it done at all, and put it off to the last minute. Even then I thought it was swimming cramps.”
“I told you last spring.”
“Oh, you were right, no doubt about it.”
“How is everything else with you?”
“Meaning?”
“Your life away from the office.”
“I have somebody.”
“Good. Who? Are you going to marry him?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t made up my mind. I couldn’t stay here if I did.”
“Why couldn’t you?”
“Obvious reasons.”
“Not so obvious, Marian. You don’t have to tell him everything.”
“No, but if he ever did find out anything. Men are men, and he’d never believe that it hasn’t been going on all the time.”
“He probably wouldn’t, therefore why tell him at all? Ever. I can assure you I’ve never said a word to anyone. Not a word, to anyone. No one in this office ever had the slightest suspicion that I know of, and if they didn’t know it here, where else would they know it? I think you’re worried about me, Marian. That I might some day say something.”
“No, I’m really more worried about myself.”
“Then I suggest that you have a serious talk with yourself. Face the fact that you’re exaggerating the importance of something that happened two years ago. It wasn’t important then. You said so yourself at the time. Why make it important now? Be honest, Marian. The only thing that would have made it important was if you had fallen in love with me, and you didn’t do that. The fourth time I wanted to see you, you very firmly refused, and did I ever bother you again?”
“No. You were very nice about that.”
“Well, be that as it may, I think the trouble now is that you’ve fallen in love with this man, and hadn’t been in love with anyone else in between.”
“You’re right.”
“And there’s something very self-destructive about the business of falling in love. I don’t know exactly what it is, but men and women feel compelled to talk too much. I’m afraid the reason is that they want to test the other person’s love, and they do it in a way that’s cruel to the other person and self-destructive to themselves. Have you still got your apartment?”
“Yes.”
“Would you like to meet me there at four o’clock this after-noon?”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
“Well, then you’re free of me. It’s as simple as that, Marian.”
“What if I had said yes?”
“Would you like to try saying yes? You’re just as attractive to me as ever.”
“But there’s nothing in it for either of us, is there?”
“Pleasure. That’s all it was before.”
“Yes, that’s true. That’s really all it was.”
“And after me there were others that were no more than pleasure, weren’t there? Before this man.”
“Yes, there were two others. He knows about them.”
“Then the reason you haven’t told him about us was that you don’t want to give up your job, for fear he’ll think you’re my mistress.”
“I’ve never been anybody’s mistress. I certainly wasn’t yours, was I?”
“Hardly, considering the intervals between the three nights we spent together. As a friend of yours, and quite a bit older, I suggest that you marry this man and keep your job here, and put your trust in me as a gentleman. I mean that. I’ll give you my word now that I’ll never again ask to see you outside the office.”
“I’m probably making too much of the whole thing.”
“No, not if it bothers you. But I think you’re so close to happiness that you ought to act decisively. Get yourself married, keep your job here, and let the future take care of the rest.”
“I think that’s good advice.”
“You’re a very attractive woman, Marian.”
“You’re a very attractive man.”
“Come over here,” he said.
“No, I don’t think I’d better. And I think you’d better have one of the other girls take your letters, at least today.”
“All right. Make it Miss Thorpe. She won’t distract me.”
She returned to the outer office, and Daisy Thorpe said to her: “What did he say this time?”
“Oh, he’s always teasing or making jokes.”
“Does he talk dirty?”
“George Lockwood? He’s above that.”
They saw him, a few minutes later, going from his office to the larger, more elegant room occupied by his brother.
“Hello, George,” said Penrose Lockwood.
“Good morning, Pen. Are you free for lunch?”
“No, I’m not free, but you can come along. I’m having lunch with Ray Turner and Charley Bohm.”
“What do they want?”
“Oh, don’t take that tone. I don’t know for sure what it is they have, but the way those two have been going, I want to be in on it. You don’t have to come in if you don’t want to.”
“Are you going there for the Company or for yourself?”
“Both.”
“I hope you go slow about involving the Company.”
“Why?”
“Well, because before you involve the Company, I think you ought to hear what I have to say.”
“I always do, but you’ve touted me and the Company off some pretty good things. You’ve been so God damn busy with this country estate of yours. How’s it coming along, by the way?”
“It’s finished. Ready to move the furniture in.”
“October. Well, I’ll give you credit. You said the first of November. But I started to say, why do you think your judgment is more reliable, sitting there in Swedish Haven, and I’m right here where things happen?”
“My judgment isn’t more reliable, Pen, and I never claimed it was. And I never really touted you off anything.”
“Oh, the hell you didn’t.”
“Now don’t say that. I didn’t. All I’ve done, and will continue to do, is make you count to ten, so to speak. And while you’re counting, consider all the factors. In this market today, generally speaking, if you miss out on something good, something equally good will be along tomorrow.”
“If you hear about it in time,” said Penrose Lockwood. “It isn’t quite as good, you know, if a lot of others have heard about it too.”
“At the moment, almost everything is good, if you’re not too greedy.”
“Well, then, you can call me greedy if you like, but I’ve made money for you, haven’t I?”
“Yes, and I’ve made some for you. But Pen, it isn’t only a question of making money. I hear of all sorts of people making pots of it these days, so it isn’t any great accomplishment.”
“What is?”
“Holding on to it.”
Penrose Lockwood laughed. “Holding on to it? What’s this house of yours going to cost, if it’s any of my business?”
“It isn’t any of your business. I don’t ask you what you do with yours, and you know damn well that isn’t what I meant. Holding on to it means having it twenty-five, fifty years from now. For instance, things get a little bad in the automobile industry, and that man Ford orders an eight-hour day and a five-day week. He doesn’t have anybody but himself to think of. But suppose all the big industries behaved that way?”
“It may not be so bad after all. He cut down over-production and made new jobs.”