Alice Adams Booth Tarkington (ebook reader txt) đ
- Author: Booth Tarkington
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âYes, he did.â Adams nodded. âI found out a good deal about glue then, too.â
âBeen workinâ on it since, I suppose?â
âYes. Kept it in my mind and studied out new things about it.â
Lohr looked serious. âWell, but see here,â he said. âI hope it ainât anything the ole manâll think might infringe on whatever he had you doinâ for him. You know how he is: broad-minded, liberal, freehanded man as walks this earth, and if he thought he owed you a cent heâd sell his right hand for a pork-chop to pay it, if that was the only way; but if he got the idea anybody was tryinâ to get the better of him, heâd sell both his hands, if he had to, to keep âem from doinâ it. Yes, at eighty, he would! Not that I mean I think you might be tryinâ to get the better of him, Virg. Youâre a mighty close ole codger, but such a thing ainât in you. What I mean: I hope there ainât any chance for the ole man to think you might beâ ââ
âOh, no,â Adams interrupted. âAs a matter of fact, I donât believe heâll ever think about it at all, and if he did he wouldnât have any real right to feel offended at me: the process Iâm going to use is one I expect to change and improve a lot different from the one Campbell and I worked on for him.â
âWell, thatâs good,â said Lohr. âOf course you know what youâre up to: youâre old enough, God knows!â He laughed ruefully. âMy, but it will seem funny to meâ âdown there with you gone! I expect you and I both been gettinâ to be pretty much deadwood in the place, the way the young fellows look at it, and the only one thatâd miss either of us would be the other one! Have you told the ole man yet?â
âWellâ ââ Adams spoke laboriously. âNo. No, I havenât. I thoughtâ âwell, thatâs what I wanted to see you about.â
âWhat can I do?â
âI thought Iâd write him a letter and get you to hand it to him for me.â
âMy soul!â his friend exclaimed. âWhy on earth donât you just go down there and tell him?â
Adams became pitiably embarrassed. He stammered, coughed, stammered again, wrinkling his face so deeply he seemed about to weep; but finally he contrived to utter an apologetic laugh. âI ought to do that, of course; but in some way or other I just donât seem to be able toâ âto manage it.â
âWhy in the world not?â the mystified Lohr inquired.
âI could hardly tell youâ ââlessân it is to say that when you been with one boss all your life itâs soâ âso kind of embarrassingâ âto quit him, I just canât make up my mind to go and speak to him about it. No; I got it in my head a letterâs the only satisfactory way to do it, and I thought Iâd ask you to hand it to him.â
âWell, of course I donât mind doinâ that for you,â Lohr said, mildly. âBut why in the world donât you just mail it to him?â
âWell, Iâll tell you,â Adams returned. âYou know, like that, itâd have to go through a clerk and that secretary of his, and I donât know who all. Thereâs a couple of kind of delicate points I want to put in it: for instance, I want to explain to him how much improvement and so on Iâm going to introduce on the old process I helped to work out with Campbell when we were working for him, soât heâll understand itâs a different article and no infringement at all. Then thereâs another thing: you see all during while I was sick he had my salary paid to me it amounts to considerable, I was on my back so long. Under the circumstances, because Iâm quitting, I donât feel as if I ought to accept it, and so Iâll have a check for him in the letter to cover it, and I want to be sure he knows it, and gets it personally. If it had to go through a lot of other people, the way it would if I put it in the mail, why, you canât tell. So what I thought: if youâd hand it to him for me, and maybe if he happened to read it right then, or anything, it might be youâd notice whatever heâd happen to say about itâ âand you could tell me afterward.â
âAll right,â Lohr said. âCertainly if youâd rather do it that way, Iâll hand it to him and tell you what he says; that is, if he says anything and I hear him. Got it written?â
âNo; Iâll send it around to you last of the week.â Adams moved toward his taxicab. âDonât say anything to anybody about it, Charley, especially till after that.â
âAll right.â
âAnd, Charley, Iâll be mighty obliged to you,â Adams said, and came back to shake hands in farewell. âThereâs one thing more you might doâ âif youâd ever happen to feel like it.â He kept his eyes rather vaguely fixed on a point above his friendâs head as he spoke, and his voice was not well controlled. âI beenâ âI been down there a good many years and I may not âaâ been so much use lately as I was at first, but I always tried to do my best for the old firm. If anything turned out soâs they did kind of take offense with me, down there, why, just say a good word for meâ âif youâd happen to feel like it, maybe.â
Old Charley Lohr assured him that he
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