OCR Text |
Show The T I; Fiction CORDIALLY DISLIKED :wita Corner "Have you heard about Henry?" I asked when we were seated. Hal nodded, avoiding my eyes. "I met the poor devil on the street this morning. I don't mind saying that it was an ordeal." I thoughtfully lighted a cigaret. "Hal," I said, "think of Madge. Isn't there something we can do?" "Well," said Hal, "I've been wondering, too. Poor Madge." He coughed. "I called Bob Taylor Tay-lor of the Taylor Lines this morning. Bob says that he might be able to do something for Henry on our recommendation." "I guess," I grinned, "that's the-answer." the-answer." And It was. Henry and Madge-were Madge-were over three days later. "I understand un-derstand you've got a new job?" I remarked to Henry. "Yes," he said with a bored look on his face. "Bob Taylor called upas up-as soon as he heard that I was free, and asked if I'd consider a position with him. Well, you know when a man offers you more money " I glanced at Betty. There was a faint smile on her face. I suppose-she suppose-she was amused. I hope so. Because Be-cause an hour later, with Henry still blowing, I was mad enough to-choke to-choke him, and almost did. T HAVE NEVER known a man to be more wholeheartedly disliked than Henry Spafford. The reason for it is his braggartly qualities, his oversearing sense of importance. import-ance. We tolerate him because we like his wife, Madge, but even so our toleration is a chore. The other night I was over to the Spafford's and sat through an hour of Henry's bragging. It seems that the big boss in New York Henry is employed em-ployed by the Jason Reid Steamship Company called up the Philadel- phia office where Henry works and O - Minute Henry answered Fiction the phone- "Jay's a great guy," Henry told me, referring to the incident. "He's asked me to run up to New York to see him a couple of times. I must remember to do that." "Who's Jay?" I asked. "Jay?" Why, Jason Reid, who owns the line, of course." "Oh," I said. , "The way to get along in any business," Henry went on, "is to let the boss know right off he can depend on you. That's the way I am with Jay." I left the Spafford home an hour later, furious that I had stayed so long, pitying Madge and disliking Henry with a renewed re-newed sense of disgust. "Something," "Some-thing," I told Betty, my wife, "ought to be done about that punk. Now he's calling Old Man Reid, Jay." "The thing to do," Betty smiled, "is to be amused at his ravings, not annoyed. He doesn't hurt any one, and there's always Madge to think of." "Even Madge," I replied, "won't keep me from hitting that guy one of these days. Something," I repeated, re-peated, "ought to be done about him." i Whether or not my thinking about it had anything to do with what happened a couple of days later I will never know. Henry was fired. Without warning or explanation he was given a couple of weeks' pay and was bounced out on his ear. -My first reaction when Betty told me about it was one of exuberance, a fiendish desire to rush over there and gloat, to sneer: "I told you sol Why don't you call up your friend, Jay, wise guy?" But this feeling passed immediately. Curiously it was followed by one of pity. The more I thought about it the deeper became my sympathy. What greater humiliation, I thought, could a man endure than this that confronted Heniy Spafford? NEXT DAY I called Hal Wheaton and asked him to have lunch with me. |