“I can assure you she didn’t, Mrs. Cool.”
Bertha Cool settled back in exasperation. “Oh, you can, can you? Well, isn’t that just perfectly lovely? Are you accustomed to firing secretaries without having any reason whatever?”
“But, Mrs. Cool, I did have a reason. I’m trying to explain.”
“And I’m trying to find out,” Bertha said, with elaborate sarcasm. “I’ve been listening and listening, and you’ve been talking and talking, and you still haven’t explained, and I still haven’t found out. I don’t know whether there’s anything we can do about it or not.”
“Well, Mrs. Cool, to be perfectly frank with you, there were several things which entered into it. I am hesitating somewhat because I can’t put my finger upon any one particular thing and say that that was the determining factor. However, the girl was a little too conscious of her good looks. That is, a person walking into an office and seeing her would immediately wonder— Oh, well, you know.”
Bertha said, “I don’t, and apparently you don’t.”
“And another thing,” Belder went on, “is that she was indiscreet.”
“In what way?”
“She gave out information she had no right to give out.”
“ Now we’re getting somewhere. What did she give out?”