Humorous stories; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Private secretaries -- Fiction
But say, when they get to usin' me in strictly fam'ly affairs, I almost
work up a grouch. Notice the almost. Course, with this fair-and-warmer
disposition of mine I can't quite register. Not with Mr. Robert, anyway.
He has such a matey, I-say-old-chap way with him. Like here the other
day when he comes strollin' out from the private office rubbin' his chin
puzzled, stares around for a minute, and then makes straight for my
desk.
"Well," says he, "I presume you noted the arrival of the prodigal son;
eh, Torchy?"
"Meaning Ambrose the Ambler?" says I.
"The same," says he.
"They will come back even from South America," says I. "And you was
figurin', I expect, how that would be a long, wet walk. But then,
nothing was ever too wet for Amby, and the only fear he had of water was
that he might get careless some time and swallow a little."
"Quite so," says Mr. Robert, grinnin'.
You see, this Ambrose Wood party is only an in-law once removed. Maybe
you remember Ferdy, who had the nerve to marry Marjorie Ellins, the
heavyweight sister of Mr. Robert's, here a few years back? Well, that
was when the Ellinses acquired a brunette member of the flock. Ambrose
is a full brother of Ferdy's. In every sense. That is, he was in the
good old days when Mr. Volstead was only a name towards the end of roll
call.
I ought to know more or less about Amby for we had him here in the
general offices for quite some time, tryin' to discover if there wasn't
some sphere of usefulness that would excuse us handin' him a pay
envelope once a week. There wasn't. Course, we didn't try him as a paper
weight or a door stop. But he had a whirl at almost everything else. And
the result was a total loss.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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