Summary

The boss escorts Woodifield out of his office. He tells his office manager, Macey, that he does not want to see anyone for the next thirty minutes. The door closes, and the boss attempts to cry over the mention of his son. The narrator explains that "it had been a terrible shock to him when old Woodifield sprang that remark upon him about the boy's grave" (3). Despite his son having died six years earlier, the boss still cannot imagine him buried in a grave. The boy was the boss's only son, and the boss had hoped his son would take over the business. Just one year before the war, the boy had already been training at the business. The staff loved him and everyone described him as "simply splendid" (3).

The boss remembers how, six years ago, Macey had brought him a telegram announcing his...