U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [511]
-480-in blue and red and yel ow lettering showing the layout of the proposed campaign. An admiring murmur ran
round the table.
Dick caught a triumphant glance in his direction from Ed Griscolm. He looked at J. W. out of the corner of his eye. J. W. was looking at the chart with an expressionless face. Dick walked over to Ed Griscolm and patted him on the shoulder. "A swel job, Ed old man," he whispered. Ed Griscolm's tense lips loosened into a smile. "Wel , gentlemen, what I'd like now is a snappy discussion," said J. W. with a mean twinkle in his paleblue eye that
matched for a second the twinkle of the smal diamonds in his cufflinks. While the others talked Dick sat staring at J. W.'s hands spread out on the sheaf of typewritten papers on the table in front of him. Oldfashioned starched cuffs pro-truded from the sleeves of the perfectlyfitting double-breasted grey jacket and out of them hung two pudgy strangely hicklooking hands with liverspots on them. Al through the discussion Dick stared at the hands, al the time writing down phrases on his scratchpad and scratching them out. He couldn't think of anything. His brains felt boiled. He went on scratching away with his pencil at phrases that made no sense at al . On the fritz at the Ritz . . . Bingham's products cure the fits.
It was after one before the conference broke up. Every-body was congratulating Ed Griscolm on his layout. Dick heard his own voice saying it was wonderful but it needed a slightly different slant. "Al right," said J. W. "How about finding that slightly different slant over the week-end? That's the idea I want to leave with every man here. I'm lunching with Mr. Bingham Monday noon. I must
have a perfected project to present."
Dick Savage went back to his office and signed a pile of letters his secretary had left for him. Then he suddenly remembered he'd told Reggie Talbot held meet him for
-481-lunch at "63" to meet the girlfriend and ran out, adjust-ing his blue muffler as he went down in the elevator. He caught sight of them at a table with their heads leaning together in the crinkled cigarettesmoke in the back of the crowded Saturdayafternoon speakeasy. "Oh, Dick, hel o," said Reggie, jumping to his feet with his mild smile, grabbing Dick's hand and drawing him towards the table. "I didn't wait for you at the office because I had to meet this one. . . . Jo, this is Mr. Savage. The only man in New York who doesn't give a damn. . . . What'l you have to drink?" The girl certainly was a knockout. When Dick let himself drop on the redleather settee beside her, facing Reggie's slender ashblond head and his big inquiring light-brown eyes, he felt boozy and tired.
"Oh, Mr. Savage, what's happened about the Bingham account? I'm so excited about it. Reggie can't talk about anything else. I know it's indiscreet to ask." She looked earnestly in his face out of longlashed black eyes. They certainly made a pretty couple.
"Tel ing tales out of school, eh?" said Dick, picking up a breadstick and snapping it into his mouth.
"But you know, Dick, Jo and me . . . we talk about everything . . . it never goes any further.
. . . And hon-estly al the younger guys in the office think it's a damn shame J. W. didn't use your first layout. . . . Griscolm is going to lose the account for us if he isn't careful . . . it just don't click. . . . I think the old man's getting soft-ening of the brain."
"You know I've thought several times recently that J. W. wasn't in very good health. . . . Too bad. He's the most bril iant figure in the publicrelations field." Dick heard an oily note come into his voice and felt ashamed in front of the youngsters and shut up suddenly.
"Say, Tony," he cal ed peevishly to the waiter. "How about some cocktails? Give me a bacardi with a little absinthe in
-482-it, you know, my special. . . . Gosh, I feel a hundred years old."
"Been burning the candle at both ends?" asked Reggie. Dick twisted his face into a smirk. "Oh, that candle," he said. "It gives me a lot of trouble." They al blushed. Dick chuckled. "By God, I don't think there are three other people in the city that have a blush left in them." They ordered more cocktails. While they were drinking Dick felt the girl's eyes serious and dark fixed on his face. She lifted her glass to him. " Reggie says you've been aw-ful y sweet to him at the office. . . . He says he'd have been fired if it wasn't for you.""Who could help being sweet to Reggie? Look at him." Reggie got red as a beet.