The Troubled Air by Irwin Shaw

Author:Irwin Shaw
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Political, Cultural Heritage, Maraya21, Historical Fiction, Literature & Fiction
ISBN: 9781480413290
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

16

“YOU CAN GO IN NOW,” MISS WALSH SAID. “MR. HUTT IS READY FOR you now.” There was a frost on Miss Walsh this morning. Like a sensitive pet, she reflected the mood of her master. As Archer went toward Hutt’s door, he noticed the slight glitter of perspiration all over Miss Walsh’s face. Maybe, he thought cruelly, I’ll put one of those advertisements for the new deodorants in an envelope and send it to her through the mails, anonymously. The Chlorophyl tablet, to be taken by mouth, and guaranteed to neutralize all body odors, all vapors of sweat and metabolic processes, for twenty-four hours at a time. Neutrality in Miss Walsh was much to be desired.

Hutt was behind his desk, his face sunburned and peeling over his neat gray flannel suit. O’Neill was sitting, very straight, near the window. The night before, at midnight, Hutt had called Archer from the airport in Florida and had told him to be in the office at three o’clock. Over the long wire, Hutt’s voice had been remote and without passion. “I’ll be in by then,” he had said, without any preliminaries. “I want to talk to you.”

Whatever O’Neill or Miss Walsh had said to the contrary, Hutt had not been out of reach of the telephone. Momentarily, Archer wondered what the conversation between Mr. Sandler and Hutt, sunburned, in a gay shirt, on a warm beach, had been like the day before.

“Sit down,” Hutt said, in his soft voice. O’Neill said nothing. He stared at Archer, his face grave, sober, waiting.

Archer seated himself on a hard chair. He tried to arrange his legs so that he looked at ease.

“You’ve been very clever, Archer,” Hutt said flatly, almost whispering. The bright wedge of his vacation-stained face was calm and expressed nothing. “You’ve won what might be called a temporary success.” He waited, as if to hear what Archer had to say to this. But Archer remained silent.

“I don’t know what you said to Mr. Sandler,” Hutt went on. “But you must have been very convincing.” There was almost a tone of flattery in his voice. “The old man is not ordinarily easy to convince. You also managed to get me on a plane and interrupt a very pleasant vacation.” Still, there was no complaint or censure in his voice. Even now, he sounded as though he was surprised and impressed by the far-reaching ingenuity of a man whom he had not regarded particularly highly before this. “Prior to your little journey to Philadelphia,” Hutt went on, “you knew, of course, about our rule about approaching any of our sponsors?”

“Yes,” Archer said. “I did.”

Hutt nodded pleasantly. “I thought as much. So it wasn’t ignorance that led you to violate one of the oldest customs of this organization.”

“No,” Archer said. “It was quite deliberate.” He saw that Hutt was waiting for him to continue, but he kept silent, resolved not to defend himself.

“It may interest you to know,” Hutt said, “that before you came in here O’Neill and I were discussing the advisability of dropping the Sandler account altogether.

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