“I never really thought that. I knew I couldn’t right along. But I tell you, Nell, the truth is I’m soft when it comes to telling folks they can go. I hate to do it! I kidded myself into thinking Knapp might buck up. But it wouldn’t do. For one thing Bronson can’t stand him and I’ve got to back up my heads of departments. They’ve got to like their help or they can’t get any work out of them.” He sat forward in his chair and began playing with his watch chain. “How did Mr. Knapp take it?” “Oh, very decently--too decently! It made it all the harder. He admitted, when I asked him, that his work didn’t interest him--that he hated it. When I half-way offered to give him a try at the selling end, he said he was sure he wouldn’t like it any better,--was sure he wouldn’t do even so well there. He said he knew he’d hate selling. Then when I put it up to him whether he thought a man can ever do good work if he doesn’t like his job, he didn’t say a thing, just kept getting whiter and whiter, and listened and listened. I did my best to let him down easy. Thanks of the firm for long and faithful service, take plenty of time to look for something else, no hurry. But it was no go. He’s got plenty of brains of a queer sort, enough to see through that sort of talk. It was damned unpleasant. He has a very uncomfortable personality anyhow. Something about him that rubs you the wrong way.” His voice was sharp with personal discomfort. He looked exasperated and aggrieved. Out of her experience of his world and her knowledge of him, his wife’s sympathy was instant. “It _is_ hard on _you_ having all those uncomfortable personal relations!” she said. “It always seems unfair that I can stay here at home with the children and draw a salary for writing advertisements that I love to do without sharing any of the dirty work.” “It’s no joke,” he agreed rather somberly. He looked at his watch. “Will I have time for a cigar before dinner?” he asked. “Just about. I didn’t know when you might be in, so the children and I have had ours. I told Kate to start broiling the steak when she heard you come in, but she’s always slow.” He clipped and lighted his cigar with an air of immense comfort. Wasn’t it something _like_ to come back to such a home after working your head off, and find everything so easy and smooth! “I’ve often thought,” said his wife, “that letting people go would be the hardest part of administrative work for me.”