Then he remembered and smiled and told his chauffeur, "There is a store I noticed in the International Building. Kamiss and Company. Stop off there...."
He marched into the richly decorated showroom and said, "I'm John Gardner of Gardner Industries. I understand you've got something new."
The clerk almost snapped his spine bowing. John Gardner! Mr. Billions himself! If he could get him on the customer list it would be a tremendous prestige boost. "Indeed we have, sir. I imagine you are referring to our new unit—Domestic Two?"
"I don't know what you call it, but it's the servant-robot you people have spent millions publicizing. Will it actually do what you claim?"
"Oh, yes. Our advertising was underplayed if anything. You see, Mr. Gardner, robots have been found quite satisfactory for assembling work—manufacturing operations and the like, where they functioned as mere automatons."
"I know," Gardner said coldly. "I use seven hundred of them in small-parts assembly."
"But only now has Kamiss been able to individualize the robot and endow it with a real intelligence. The process involved a new sensitizer we developed. This device is motivated by a micro-wave control individualized to the unit itself. The result, Mr. Gardner, is basic intelligence and unswerving devotion. Each unit is—"
"You talk too much," Gardner growled with his usual tact. "Trot one of the things out and let me look it over."
"Certainly sir," and the clerk scurried away, fearful of offending this powerful man.