Читать книгу The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald онлайн

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“I’m sorry, boys,” he said haltingly. “I promised I’d decide this morning, and I will, but it means a whole lot to me and you’ll have to give me a little time.”

They both nodded, fixing their glances on the carpet to avoid encountering his distraught eyes.

Suddenly he stopped by the table and picking up the telephone called the general manager’s office.

“Say, Galt,” he shouted into the mouthpiece, “you sure you sent Jones to Chicago?”

“Positive,” said a voice on the other end. “He came in here couple of days ago and said he was half-crazy for something to do. I told him it was against orders, but he said he was out of the competition anyhow—and we needed somebody who was competent to handle that silver. So I——”

“Well, you shouldn’t have done it, see? I wanted to talk to him about something, and you shouldn’t have done it.”

Clack! He hung up the receiver and resumed his endless pacing up and down the floor. Confound Jones, he thought. Most ungrateful thing he ever heard of after he’d gone to all this trouble for his father’s sake. Outrageous! His mind went off on a tangent and he began to wonder whether Jones would handle that business out in Chicago. It was a complicated situation—but then, Jones was a trustworthy fellow. They were all trustworthy fellows. That was the whole trouble.