“Pity you settled in Canton,” says Mr. Atkins. “Our town’s bigger and liver and got more business. I look to see it grow.”
“Mr. Phillips,” says Catty, all of a sudden, “why don’t you move over there? Nothin’ to hold you here. If you’ll come we kin work together. We got a room you kin use, rent free, as an office, or we can make a kind of partnership out of it. I figgered on makin’ an ice-cream parlor out of that room, but I guess there’s more money in architects. Then you’d be handy to us, and we’d be handy to you.... I tell you, Mr. Phillips, we kin git the work to do if we kin find somebody to tell us how to do it.”
“I’m hanged,” says Mr. Phillips, “if I don’t believe you can.”
And that’s how it came about that Jack Phillips moved to our town and went into business with the Atkinses. It seemed like he was some folks, too. Had family and all that, but his father had lost his money. Our town was kind of excited about him comin’, and it was an awful shock to ’em when they seen our sign go up. I say our sign because I was so interested in the business. The new sign was plain and Catty said it was dignified. It said:
ATKINS & PHILLIPS
Architects, Contractors, Consulting Engineers
Interior Decorators
The first day after Jack joined in with Catty and his father I heard Mr. Gage stop him on the street.
“Mr. Phillips, hain’t it?” says Mr. Gage.
“I’m sure you’re right,” says Jack, with the kind of a grin he usually wears.