“You don’t need to blueprint it for me,” Bertha said. “I’ve forgotten more about these things than you’ll ever know. A judgment creditor hates to think the debtor is getting off too easy. If I tell him I can get twenty-five hundred dollars as a settlement of a twenty-thousand-dollar judgment, no matter how badly he wants to settle, he’ll feel you’re getting off too easy; but if I tell him that I can get five thousand out of you, that I’m going to keep twenty-five hundred and give him twenty-five hundred, he’ll be twice as apt to agree to it. In that way he thinks you’ll be getting stuck for five thousand dollars cash.”
Belder’s eyes sparkled. “That’s an excellent point, Mrs. Cool, an excellent point. I can see that you are a woman of experience and discernment.”
Bertha brushed his praise to one side. Her chair creaked as she swivelled so that her hard, intense eyes were beating her client into a psychic submission.
“Now then,” she asked, “what’s in it for me?”
2
Short But Not Sweet
George K. Nunnely’s secretary had the unsure attitude which characterizes a new employee who is afraid of making a mistake.
“You have an appointment with Mr. Nunnely?” she asked. Bertha Cool glared just long enough for the other woman’s gnawing uncertainty to put her on the defensive. Then she said, “Tell Mr. Nunnely Mrs. Cool wants to see him about turning dubious assets into cold, hard cash. Hand him my card. Tell him I don’t work unless I’m paid, but I don’t ask pay unless I produce results. Think you’ve got that?”
The girl looked at the card. “You’re — you’re Mrs. Cool?”
“That’s right.”