The Best of Everything Read Free

her first day at Fabian, and she couldn't make up her mind who seemed more startling—the people who read such trash or the people who pubhshed it. The strange thing was, though, that lately whenever she read a story with a happy ending she found herself crying.

    Tou're the new secretary? I'm Amanda Farrow."
    Caroline jumped to her feet, shaking off her daydream. The woman in front of her desk was in her late thirties, tall and slim with bright copper hair pulled back into a chignon. She was cool and polished and fashionably dressed. She even wore a little hat, two fluffy feathers really, with a tiny black veil. "My name's Caroline Bender."
    "You can come into my office in a moment. Number nine."
    She watched Amanda Farrow disappear into Office Nine and then found a shorthand pad and some pencils in the drawer of her new desk. From her investigation in the early morning Caroline knew that Amanda Farrow's office was one of the executive ones, one rank lower than the offices with carpets. She saw the overhead lights go on in Number Nine and waited a moment more, then opened the door and went in.
    Amanda Farrow was seated behind her large desk. She was still wearing her hat, and she was busy applying nail poUsh to her fingernails. There was a large filing cabinet against one wall, and two armchairs in front of the desk.
    "First you can order me some coffee, black with sugar," Amanda Farrow said. "All the filing to be done is in this box here. My secretary left last week and the place is a mess. The mail comes four times a day, you open it, and anything that requires a personal answer goes in this box. Some of the letters you can answer yourself, if they're from cranks, for instance. But show me everything you write before you send it out. Do you have a Social Security card?"
    "Not yet."
    "Well, you'll have to get it on your lunch hour. Mr. Fabian is very strict about employees working without their Social Security cards. You get one hour for lunch and I want you back here on time so you can answer my phone. Oh, and if you have time you can pick up a box of dusting powder for me at Saks."
    Caroline was beginning to dislike this woman, she talked so fast it was hard to follow her. She sat down in one of the armchairs beside Amanda Farrow's desk and picked up the telephone receiver to dial the coffee shop.
    "Not herel" Miss Farrow said in annoyance, capping her bottle of nail polish. "You use your phone outside. You always answer my telephone at your desk and say 'Miss Farrow's office.' After you've

    ordered my co£Fee you can come back in here and take some dictation."
    Caroline hurried back to her desk, called the coffee shop, went back to take dictation, was interrupted in her filing to take another letter, was interrupted in her typing of the letters to do more filing. Amanda Farrow seemed to have anything but an orderly mind; the minute she thought of something she wanted to have done immediately she thought of something else she wanted done more immediately. Every time the phone rang Caroline had to run out of the office, if she was filing, and answer it at her own desk. Once in a while Miss Farrow would stroll out of her office and come to peer over Caroline's shoulder. The first time she did this it made Caroline so nervous she made two mistakes.
    "I thought you were supposed to be a good typist," Miss Farrow said.
    At twelve noon on the dot, having been in the office two hours, Miss Farrow went out to lunch.
    "How do you like your new boss?" Mary Agnes asked.
    "I hope she's only going to be my temporary boss," Caroline said worriedly.
    "She's had twelve secretaries in three years," Mary Agnes said. She took a sandwich wrapped in brown paper out of her desk drawer and put on a white orlon sweater with glass beads sewn on it. "Come on, I'll ride you down in the elevator."
    "Can you tell me where I can get a Social Security card?"
    "There's a place two blocks from here. You'd better eat first, it will take you hours to get