“No. I’m the father of a young man who is very much concerned — too much concerned, in fact.”
We waited for him to go on. He crossed his knees, clipped the end off a cigar, and asked, “Mind if I smoke?”
“Oh, please do,” Bertha said. “I like to see a man smoke a cigar. It’s so thoroughly masculine.”
He lit the cigar, carefully dropped the match into a tray, and said, “I have an only son, Philip. I run an advertising agency. Philip is coming in with me. I’m going to incorporate the business. I intended to give Philip a half interest as his wedding present.”
“That’s nice.”
“You see, he didn’t care much about settling down in an office. Perhaps I’ve been too indulgent. But when he fell in love, it changed all that. He was simply crazy over this young woman. She worked as secretary to one of the officials in an airplane factory and is strong for work and self-reliance. She imbued Philip with her ideas, and he suddenly decided he wanted to take his coat off and dig in. It was a miraculous transformation.”
“Must have made you feel pretty good.”
“It did — in a way — but—”
“Didn’t you want him to marry her?”
“At first, I didn’t want him to marry anyone until he’d become settled in a career. He’s twenty-eight, and has never done anything except play and travel. I could never get him interested in hard routine work.”