Mason said, with a grin, “Well, now, a promise is definite and final.”
“So you really don’t mean it.”
“Well,” he offered, “I’ll make you a conditional promise.”
“What do you mean by a conditional promise?”
“I won’t take any ordinary case,” he said. “Of course, if something should come in which fairly reeked of mystery— Well, you wouldn’t want me to go around the world putting in every waking minute wondering what I’d left behind me, would you?”
“Yes,” she said, “I would.”
“I wouldn’t enjoy the trip.”
“You think you wouldn’t. If you once got started you’d get a kick out of it. You’d see so much beneath the surface that you’d get a lot of fun sizing up your fellow travelers, going ashore in the different ports, and—”
She broke off, to lift the receiver from the telephone on her desk as the bell shrilled into noise. Listening a moment, she looked up and said, “Frederick Carpenter, the Vice-President of the Second Fidelity Savings & Loan.”
Mason grinned and said, “That may be good. Better listen in.”