"William Tenn - Wednesday's Child" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tenn William)

wrong with that, Mr. Balik? That way I don't have any conflict with the other girls and the firm is sure of a
secretary being in the office all through the summer."
"There's nothing wrong with that per se. By that I mean," he explained carefully, "that there is nothing
wrong with the arrangement as such. But it makes for loose ends, for organizational confusion. And
loose ends, Miss Gresham, loose ends and organizational confusion have no place in a well-regulated
office."
He was pleased to note that she was looking uncomfortable again.
"Does that meanтАФare you trying to tell me thatтАФI might be laid off?"
"It could happen," Fabian agreed, neglecting to add that it was, however, very un-likely to happen in
the case of a secretary who was as generally efficient on the one hand, and as innocuous on the other, as
Wednesday Gresham. He carefully cut a fork-sized portion of roast beef free of its accompanying strip of
orange fat before going on. "Look at it this way. How would it be if every girl in the office asked for an
additional week's leave of absence every yearтАФeven if it was without pay, as it would have to be? And
then, every few years, wanted an additional month's leave of absence on top of that? What kind of an
office would we have, Miss Gresham? Not a well-regulated one, certainly."
As he chewed the roast beef with the requisite thoroughness he beamed at the thoughtful concern on
her face and was mentally grateful that he hadn't had to present that line of argument to anyone as sharp
as Arlette Stein, for example. He knew what the well-hipped thirtyish widow would have immediately
replied: "But every girl in the office doesn't ask for it, Mr. Balik." A heavy sneer at such sophistry would
mean little to Stein.
Wednesday, he appreciated, was not the person to go in for such counterattacks. She was rolling
her lips distressedly against each other and trying to think of a polite, good-employee way out. There was
only one, and she would have to come to it in a moment.
She did.
"Would it help any," she began, and stopped. She took a deep breath. "Would it help any, if I told
you the reasonsтАФfor the leaves-of-absence?"
"It would," he said heartily. "It would indeed, Miss Gresham. That way I, as office manager, can
operate from facts instead of mysteries. I can hear your reasons, weigh them for validity and measure
their importanceтАФand your usefulness as a secre-taryтАФagainst the disorganization your absences create
in the day-to-day operation of Slaughter, Stark and Slingsby."
"M-m-m." She looked troubled, uncertain. "I'd like to think a bit, if you don't mind."
Fabian waved a cauliflower-filled fork magnanimously. "Take all the time in the world! Think it out
carefully. Don't tell me anything you aren't perfectly willing to tell me. Of course anything you do tell me
will be, I am sure I need hardly reassure you, completely confidential. I will treat it as official knowledge,
Miss GreshamтАФnot personal. And while you're thinking, you might start eating your raw cabbage.
Before it gets cold," he added with a rich, executive-type chuckle.
 She nodded him a half-smile that ended in a sigh and began working at her plate in an
absent-minded, not-particularly-hungry fashion.
"You see," she began abruptly as if she'd found a good point of departure, "some things happen to
me that don't happen to other people."
"That, I would say, is fairly obvious."
"They're not bad things. I mean what, oh, the newspapers would call bad. And they're not
dangerous things, exactly. They'reтАФthey're more physical-like. They're things that could happen to my
body."
Fabian finished his plate, sat back and crossed his arms. "Could you be just a little more specific?
UnlessтАФ" and he was struck by a horrifying thoughtтАФ"unless they're what is known as, er, as female
difficulties. In that case, of courseтАФ"
This time she didn't even blush. "Oh, no. Not at all. At least there's very little of that. It'sтАФother
things. Like my appendix. Every year I have to have my appendix out."
"Your appendix?" He turned that over in his mind. "Every year? But a human being only has one