The girl let him in.
“Mr. So-and-So,” he said, “I don't want a job. I want advice.”
His manner was so ingenuous and charming, his earnestness so glowing, that the man at the desk listened while he talked, and then talked a while himself, and ended by giving the young man the position (as well as the advice) that he wanted. But if he had been less attractive personally and the older man had been shrewd enough to see through the ruse (or perhaps he did see through it but made the proper discount for it) or had been opposed to trick methods, the scheme might not have worked so well.
The most universal weakness of intellect lies in the part of the brain which listens to flattery. Very few people like compliments laid on with a trowel, but no man can resist the honest admiration of another if it seems sincere. And since it is the sort of thing that one likes almost above all else he often takes the false coin for the true.
The second young man met the rebuff so familiar to young men looking for their first job, “We want men with experience.”
“That's what everybody says,” the boy answered, “but what I want to know is how we are going to get that experience if you don't give us a chance.”
The older man sympathized, but had no place for the other and told him so.
“What would you do if you were I?” the young man asked as he turned to leave. The other grinned. “Why, I'd work for a firm for a week for nothing,” he said, “and show them that they could not get along without me.”
The boy stopped. “All right,” he said, “let me work for you a week.”
The older man had not expected this but he gave the youngster a chance and he made good.