The young man who entered looked exactly like a second clerk in a provincial seed-merchant's office— which, strangely enough, he chanced to be. His chief characteristic was an intense ordinariness. He was a young man; and when you had said that of him you had said everything. There was nothing which you would have noticed about him, except the fact that there was nothing to notice. His age was twenty-two and his name was Roland Bleke.
"Please, sir, it's about my salary."
Mr. Fineberg, at the word, drew himself together much as a British square at Waterloo must have drawn itself together at the sight of a squadron of cuirassiers. "Salary?" he cried. "What about it? What's the matter with it? You get it, don't you?" "Yes, sir, but——" "Well? Don't stand there like an idiot. What is it?"
"It's too much." Mr. Fineberg's brain reeled. It was improbable that the millennium could have arrived with a jerk; on the other hand, he had distinctly heard one of his clerks complain that his salary was too large. He pinched himself.
"Say that again," he said. "If you could see your way to reduce it, sir——" It occurred to Mr. Fineberg for one instant that his subordinate was endeavoring to be humorous, but a glance at Roland's face dispelled that idea.
"Why do you want it reduced?" "Please, sir, I'm going to be married." "What the deuce do you mean?" "When my salary reaches a hundred and fifty, sir. And it's a hundred and forty now, so if you could see your way to knocking off ten pounds——" Mr. Fineberg saw light. He was a married man himself.
"My boy," he said genially, "I quite understand. But I can do you better than that. It's no use doing this sort of thing in a small way. From now on your salary is a hundred and ten. No, no, don't thank me. You're an excellent clerk, and it's a pleasure to me to reward merit when I find it. Close the door after you."
Wodehouse, P. G. (2014-12-07). A Man of Means: Revised Edition of Original Version (Classics To Go) (Kindle Locations 13-27). Otbebookpublishing. Kindle Edition.
I know, we live in an advanced age, one that speeds along from innovation to invention, one that thinks and actually acts outside the envelope, outside the box, way outside. Still, think about it: in all the reading and watching and listening you have done, have you previously come on a scene where a young man about to be married asks, in a polite and respectful way, that his salary be reduced????
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
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