“Well, it’s not very amusing, but I do hear it every day of my life, and so I suppose it must be the truth, even if there are some people kind enough not to tell me so.”
A customer came before Thorndyke had time to answer, and Tom left the store with a slow, listless step. Work was waiting for him, however, and lively enough to stir him up and make him forget whether he could do it well or not, and when this happened, he was sure to do it well. If he had known how often the other partners thought so, it would have changed everything; but he came almost altogether in Hal’s way, and by the time he had done with him, he couldn’t believe that any kind word he had from the others was more than out of charity, and he never had a summons into the counting-room without expecting to be told what a stupid fellow he was, and wondering that it did not come.
But this time “stupid” certainly wasn’t the word. Tom was getting more and more on his mettle as buyers came thicker and faster, and he “was making things fly,” as Aleck would have called it, in a way that Hal almost looked on with envy. Business hours were just coming to a close when his run was over, and he stood near the door having a word with his last customer, and with a record of sales that made him feel as if he was somebody, for a few minutes at least.
“Oh, by the way,” said the customer, “I want a drygoods-box. What is that one worth, and can I have it?”
“Yes,” said Tom, “you can have it; about fifty cents will cover it, I suppose.”
He handed him the amount, and Tom put it in his vest-pocket, and went on laughing and chatting a few moments, feeling his extra spirits a luxury he was tempted to extend over as much ground as possible, and in fact they lasted him fairly home, and even the ghost of them came back with him to business hours in the morning.
But the sound of Hal’s voice calling for the hoosier general dispelled all that was left in a minute; there was nothing that tormented Tom like that nickname, and it seemed as if it never would be done with. Even if it was dropped once in a while, until he began to flatter himself it had really gone under, up it came again, always at a moment when he felt least like bearing it, and he was sure to see some of the younger clerks daring to grin; and what could he say if they did? Hadn’t he made a blunder that almost any of them would have been disgraced for; and if the junior partner chose to remind him of it, he supposed they had a right to grin.
He got through with what Hal wanted, but it seemed to him Hal gave him a peculiar look now and then. There was no mistake about it, and it came oftener and oftener as the day went on. What did it mean? It followed him home after hours, and worried him every time he knew where he was through the night. What had he done now, and how many people would hear of it as soon as he did? He should hear of it soon, he was sure, for the same look was there when he came in the next morning.
“Sent in your accounts, since Thursday’s sales, general?” asked Hal.
“Why, yes, of course,” said Tom.