Belder looked pleadingly at his secretary. “Tell her that I’ll have to call her back. Get a number where I can reach her. Tell her that I’m in conference where I’m just on the point of signing a contract — a very important contract... Do it up brown, Imogene, put it on thick.”
“Yes, Mr. Belder. She asked where Mrs. Belder was.”
Belder put his head in his hands and groaned. For a moment there was silence in the office, then Belder raised his head. “Hell, I don’t know. Tell her I haven’t been home since — Tell her to go jump in the lake, tell her to go fly a kite.”
“Yes, Mr. Belder.” She quietly closed the door.
Belder hesitated for a moment, then pushed back his chair, strode across the office, jerked open the door to the reception office. “Fix the telephone so I can listen in, Imogene.”
“Yes, Mr. Belder.”
Everett Belder leaned across Bertha Cool’s chair. His long arms snatched up the telephone. He left the door to the reception office wide open.
Bertha could hear Imogene Dearborne’s voice fairly oozing sweetness, saying, “He’s so sorry that he can’t talk with you right now, Mrs. Goldring. If you’ll leave your number, he’ll get in touch with you at the first available opportunity... No, Mrs. Goldring, not at all... No, it’s a most important conference. He’s just on the point of signing a contract with a manufacturer covering the distribution of a product in all of the territory west of the Rockies... Yes, Mrs. Goldring... Yes, I’ll take the number... T hank you, Mrs. Goldring... Oh, yes. I’m to tell him Carlotta is with you. Thank you very much, Mrs. Goldring. Good-bye... What’s that?... Why, he said he didn’t know, in case she wasn’t home. He hasn’t been there since leaving for the office... Yes, Mrs. Goldring. I’ll tell him, yes. Thank you. G ood -by.”
The receiver clicked in the outer office. Belder dropped the desk telephone back into place and said, “That’s a complication.”
“Your mother-in-law?”