Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 4 — page 66: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

536 ‘ All right,” I assented. take heads.”’ He spun the coin on the flat of his desk. It came down with the young lady’s classic profile uppermost, and I exhaled a deep breath of relief. My partner grinned good-humoredly. ‘That settles it,’ he remarked. ‘I shall start out to-morrow morning on my new profession. If you have any friends, Mr. Pembroke,. whose windows need attention you might be kind enough to say a good word for me.” I made one attempt to dissuade him. “Tt’s madness!” I protested. ‘‘ Sheer folly! See here, Marvin, why not drop this fool idea and let me take a job in another law office, as we first agreed? My plan may have its disadvantages, but at least it’s a sane one. For the love of Me- hetabeel, old man, listen to reason!”’ He shook his head. ‘“ The die is cast!” he declared, with mock tragedy. Then he glanced toward the door which communi- _cated with the outer office, and his face suddenly became grave. ‘““There’s one thing, though,” he said in an undertone. ‘“ Miss Boynton isn’t to learn a word about—about what I’m do- ing. You understand that fully, of course? You'll have to find some plausible explan- ation to account for my spending so much time outside the office. Perhaps it may be possible to make her believe that I am in court. At all events not in any circum- stances is she to be permitted to suspect the truth. You'll promise me that, Bob?” It was not until that moment, strange to say, that the thought had ever entered my mind that I might not be the only member of the firm whose interest in our attractive stenographer was more than merely professional. Il. *“Pmzon 1 WHATEVER objections there might be to my partner’s sensational project, there is no denying that it was a pronounced success from a financial standpoint. The very first day he made twelve dollars, which, con- sidering that he was a novice at the art of window-washing, was doing pretty well I had to admit. The second day he had THE ARGOSY. increased his earnings to fourteen dollars, and by the end of his first week at his new occupation he was averaging between fifteen’ and twenty dollars per day. ‘It’s the easiest money I ever made in ' my life,’ he told me, with a chuckle. ‘“ Now that I’ve thoroughly got my hand in, I can get a whole window done in less than five minutes, and I’ve got my route so sys- tematized that I lose very little time in getting from customer to customer.” ‘““How do you get your customers?” I asked him, curiously. ‘ By personal solicitation mostly. That is to say, I started in that way. Just went from apartment to apartment, you know, and asked the good housewives if they wanted their windows washed. If they hadn’t already made arrangements with one of my competitors they welcomed me like a prodigal son. With servant girls not to be had at any price, and washerwomen charging four dollars per day and refusing to do anything else but the family wash, they were mighty glad to avail themselves of my offer to let daylight into their homes. And they were eager to make an arrange- ment with me, too, to come every week. I’ve got pretty nearly enough steady en- gagements now to keep me busy, and shan’t have to spend much time drumming up new trade.” | “You confine your operations to apart- ments and homes, of course?” I inquired anxiously. ‘“‘ You don’t go near any busi- ness places?” “Not many. Most of my customers are private families, but I have a few stores, too, on my list—and a couple of office- buildings.” ‘‘ Office buildings!”’ I echoed, in alarm. ‘Great Scott! You don’t mean to say that you are indiscreet enough to venture into the offices of business men? Why, you might be recognized by one of our clients, 9) as ‘“No danger of that,” he cut me short, with a confident laugh. ‘‘ You ought to see me in my working togs. I don’t believe you’d be able to identify me yourself if you met me face to face. As.an extra pre- caution I stain my classic countenance with an olive tint, speak broken English during (Cl QO) mM clo@olx