Humorous stories; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Private secretaries -- Fiction
It's all wrong, Percy, all wrong. Somebody's been and rung in a revise
on this Romeo dope, and here we find ourselves tryin' to make the Cupid
Express on a canceled time-card. What do I mean--we? Why, me and Mr.
Robert. Ah, there you go! No, not Miss Vee. She's all right--don't
worry. We're gettin' along fine, Vee and me; that is, so far as we've
gone. Course there's 'steen diff'rent varieties of Vee; but I'm strong
for all of 'em. So there's no room for tragedy there.
But when it comes to this case of Mr. Robert and a certain party!
You see, after I've sent him back to Miss Hampton loaded up with all
them wise hints about rushin' her off her feet, and added that hunch as
to rememberin' that he has a pair of arms--well, I leave it to you.
Ain't that all reg'lar? Don't they pass it out that way in plays and
magazines? Sure! It's the hero with the quick-action strong-arm stuff
that wins out in the big scene. So why shouldn't it work for him?
I could tell, though, by the rugged set of his jaw as he marches into
the private office next mornin', that it hadn't. I expect maybe he'd
just as soon not have gone into the subject then, with me or anyone
else; but so long as he'd sort of dragged me into this fractured romance
of his I felt like I had a right to be let in on the results. So I
pivots round and springs a sympathetic grin.
"Did you pull it?" says I.
He shrugs his shoulders kind of weary. "Oh, yes," says he. "I--er--I
pulled it."
"Well?" says I, steppin' over and leanin' confidential on the roll-top.
"Torchy," says he, "please understand that I am in no way censuring you.
You--you meant well."
"Ah, say, Mr. Robert!" says I. "Not so rough. I only gave you the usual
get-busy line, and if you went and----"
"Wasn't there some advice," he breaks in, "about using my arms?"
"Eh?" says I, gawpin' at him. "You--you didn't open the act by goin' to
a clinch, did you?"
He lets his chin drop and sort of shivers. "I'm afraid I did," says he.
"Z-z-z-zingo!" I gasps.
"You see, the part of your suggestions which impressed me most was
something to that effect, as I recall it. And then--oh, the deuce take
it, I lost my head! Anyway, the next I knew she was in my arms, and I--I
was----" He ends with a shoulder shrug and spreads out his hands. "I
thought you ought to know," he goes on, "that it isn't being done."
"But what then?" says I. "Did she hand you one?"
"No," says he. "She merely slipped away and--and stood laughing at me.
She hardly seemed indignant: just amused."
"Huh!" says I, starin' puzzled. "Then she ain't like any I ever heard of
before. Now accordin' to dope she'd either----"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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