The Lockwood Concern Read Online Free PDF

reasons." "Not so obvious, Marian. You don't have to tell him everything." "No, but if he ever did find out anything. Men are men, and he'd never believe that it hasn't been going on all the time." "He probably wouldn't, therefore why tell him at all? Ever. I can assure you I've never said a word to anyone. Not a word, to anyone. No one in this office ever had the slightest suspicion that I know of, and if they didn't know it here, where else would they know it? I think you're worried about me, Marian. That I might someday say something." "No, I'm really more worried about myself." "Then I suggest that you have a serious talk with yourself. Face the fact that you're exaggerating the importance of something that happened two years ago. It wasn't important then. You said so yourself at the time. Why make it important now? Be honest, Marian. The only thing that would have made it important was if you had fallen in love with me, and you didn't do that. The fourth time I wanted to see you, you very firmly refused, and did I ever bother you again?" "No. You were very nice about that." "Well, be that as it may, I think the trouble now is that you've fallen in love with this man, and hadn't been in love with anyone else in between." "You're right." "And there's something very self-destructive about the business of falling in love. I don't know exactly what it is, but men and women feel compelled to talk too much. I'm afraid the reason is that they want to test the other person's love, and they do it in a way that's cruel to the other person and self-destructive to themselves. Have you still got your apartment?" "Yes." "Would you like to meet me there at four o'clock this afternoon?" "No, I wouldn't." "Well, then you're free of me. It's as simple as that, Marian." "What if I had said yes?" "Would you like to try saying yes? You're just as attractive to me as ever." "But there's nothing in it for either of us, is there?" "Pleasure. That's all it was before." "Yes, that's true. That's really all it was." "And after me there were others that were no more than pleasure, weren't there? Before this man." "Yes, there were two others. He knows about them." "Then the reason you haven't told him about us was that you don't want to give up your job, for fear he'll think you're my mistress." "I've never been anybody's mistress. I certainly wasn't yours, was I?" "Hardly, considering the intervals between the three nights we spent together. As a friend of yours, and quite a bit older, I suggest that you marry this man and keep your job here, and put your trust in me as a gentleman. I mean that. I'll give you my word now that I'll never again ask to see you outside the office." "I'm probably making too much of the whole thing." "No, not if it bothers you. But I think you're so close to happiness that you ought to act decisively. Get yourself married, keep your job here, and let the future take care of the rest." "I think that's good advice." "You're a very attractive woman, Marian." "You're a very attractive man." "Come over here," he said. "No, I don't think I'd better. And I think you'd better have one of the other girls take your letters, at least today." "All right. Make it Miss Thorpe. She won't distract me." She returned to the outer office, and Daisy Thorpe said to her, "What did he say this time?" "Oh, he's always teasing or making jokes." "Does he talk dirty?" "George Lockwood? He's above that." They saw him, a few minutes later, going from his office to the larger, more elegant room occupied by his brother. "Hello, George," said Penrose Lockwood. "Good morning, Pen. Are you free for lunch?" "No, I'm not free, but you can come along. I'm having lunch with Ray Turner and Charley Bohm." "What do they want?" "Oh, don't take that tone. I don't know for sure what it is they have, but the way those two have been going, I want to be in on it. You don't have to come in if you don't want to." "Are you going there for the Company or for yourself?"