The Priceless Pearl

								

"Will you let me speak?" said Mr. Bunner--a rhetorical question. He
meant to speak in any case.
"No," answered Pearl. "Certainly not. Gentlemen, I have been
dismissed--I know--because some man in this office has no self-control.
I can't identify him, but I have my suspicions." And she cast a
dreadful glance at the third vice president. "Why should I go? Why
shouldn't he? Crying! Woof! How absurd!"
"Leave the room, Miss Leavitt," said the president; but he weakened the
effect of his edict by leaning forward with his hand to his ear so as
to catch whatever she was going to say next.
"I haven't shed a tear since my mother died," said Mr. Rixon rather
tearfully to the man next him.
"This is not the time to discuss your grievance, Miss Leavitt," said
the treasurer, wondering why he had never kept in closer touch with the
office; "but if you feel you have a just complaint against the company
come to my office tomorrow afternoon----"
"I'll not go near your office," said Pearl, and she began again to
stride about the room, occasionally stamping her right foot without
losing step. "I shall never again go into any office where men are. I
won't work for men. They're poor sports; they have no self----"
"You said that before," said the treasurer.
"----control," Pearl went on, for people in her frame of mind cannot be
stopped. "Why shouldn't he go? But no, you have to be protected from a
girl like a herd of sheep from a wolf--a girl who hasn't even looked
at you, at that. If I had ever spoken to the man----"
"Leave the room instantly, Miss Leavitt," said the president, and this
time he spoke as if he meant it, for he was afraid the identity of the
third vice president might be revealed. Little it mattered to Pearl
what the old man meant.
"I wouldn't mind so much," she went on, "if you did not all pretend
to be so brave and strong--to protect women. You protect each
other--that's who you protect."
"Come, come," said a member of the board. "This isn't the way to keep a
job, you know."
"I don't want to keep this job. I want you for once to hear what a
woman thinks of the men she works for--a lot of poor sports--and not
industrious--none of you work the way girls work for you. Slack, that's
what I call you, and lacking in self-control."
And she went out as suddenly as she had come in, and slammed the door
so hard behind that those members of the board, sitting near it ducked
their heads into their collars in fear of falling glass.
There was a minute's pause, and then the president said with a slight
smile, "Well, Mr. Bunner, I think we all see what you meant when you
said this young woman was a disturbing element in the office."
"There has never been anything like this before," said Bunner; "never
anything in the least like this anywhere I have ever been."
"Well," said the treasurer, "I don't suppose we need distress ourselves
about her finding another job."
There was a certain wistful undercurrent in his tone.