Expect me to make firms pay twice for the same order, cause of
your carelessness?"

Mr. Wrenn found himself outside in the dark corridor.
The manager hadn't seemed much impressed by his revolt.

The manager wasn't. He called a stenographer and dictated:

"Bronx Emporium:

"GENTLEMEN:--Our Mr. Wrenn has again (underline that `again,'
Miss Blaustein), again looked up your order for May Day novelties.
As we wrote before, order certainly was duplicated by 'phone.
Our Mr. Wrenn is thoroughly reliable, and we have his records
of these two orders. We shall therefore have to push
collection on both--"

After all, Mr. Wrenn was thinking, the crafty manager might be
merely concealing his hand. Perhaps he had understood the defiance.
That gladdened him till after lunch. But at three, when his head
was again foggy with work and he had forgotten whether there was
still April anywhere, he began to dread what the manager might
do to him. Suppose he lost his job; The Job! He worked
unnecessarily late, hoping that the manager would learn of it.
As he wavered home, drunk with weariness, his fear of losing
The Job was almost equal to his desire to resign from The Job.


He had worked so late that when he awoke on Sunday morning he
was still in a whirl of figures. As he went out to his