“Now, how can I tell, my boy?  We’ll work you in if we can—­you ain’t a bad clerk; or at least you wouldn’t be if you’d be a little more careful.  By the way, of course you understand that if we try to work you in it’ll take lots of trouble, and we’ll expect you to not go flirting round with other firms, looking for a job.  Understand that?”

“Oh yes, sir.”

“All right.  We appreciate your work all right, but of course you can ’t expect us to fire any of our present force just because you take the notion to come back whenever you want to....  Hiking off to Europe, leaving a good job!...  You didn’t get on the Continent, did you?”

“No, I—­”

“Well....  Oh, say, how’s the grub in London?  Cheaper than it is here?  The wife was saying this morning we’d have to stop eating if the high cost of living goes on going up.”

“Yes, it’s quite a little cheaper.  You can get fine tea for two and three cents a cup.  Clothes is cheaper, too.  But I don’t care much for the English, though there is all sorts of quaint places with a real flavor....  Say, Mr. Guilfogle, you know I inherited a little money, and I can wait awhile, and you’ll kind of keep me in mind for a place if one—­”

“Didn’t I say I would?”

“Yes, but—­”

“You come around and see me a week from now.  And leave your address with Rosey.  I don’t know, though, as we can afford to pay you quite the same salary at first, even if we can work you in—­the season’s been very slack.  But I’ll do what I can for you.  Come in and see me in about a week.  Goo’ day.”

Rabin, the salesman, waylaid Mr. Wrenn in the corridor.

“You look kind of peeked, Wrenn.  Old Goglefogle been lighting into you?  Say, I ought to have told you first.  I forgot it.  The old rat, he’s been planning to stick the knife into you all the while.  ’Bout two weeks ago me and him had a couple of cocktails at Mouquin’s.  You know how chummy he always gets after a couple of smiles.  Well, he was talking about—­I was saying you’re a good man and hoping you were having a good time—­and he said, `Yes,’ he says, `he’s a good man, but he sure did lay himself wide open by taking this trip.  I’ve got him dead to rights,’ he says to me. `I’ve got a hunch he’ll be back here in three or four months,’ he says to me. `And do you think he’ll walk in and get what he wants?  Not him.  I’ll keep him waiting a month before I give him back his job, and then you watch, Rabin,’ he says to me, `you’ll see he’ll be tickled to death to go back to work at less salary than he was getting, and he’ll have sense enough to not try this stunt of getting off the job again after that.  And the trip’ll be good for him, anyway—­he’ll do better work—­vacation at his own expense—­save us money all round.  I tell you, Rabin,’ he says to me, `if any of you boys think you can get the best of the company or me you just want to try it, that’s all.’  Yessir, that’s what the old rat told me.  You want to watch out for him.”