“The hell we can,” I remarked.
“The hell we can. Send for her.”
I sent Fritz. He used the elevator, since a lady was involved. In the office you could hear it creaking and groaning up, and pretty soon it came down again and jolted to a stop. When Anne entered Fred looked at her the way a blind man looks at the sun. I hoped I wasn’t that obvious, and anyway she wasn’t very sunny. She tried to greet us with a kind of smile, but with the red-rimmed eyes and the corners of the mouth down it certainly wasn’t the face that had stolen the show from a million flowers.
Cramer took her to the front room and shut the soundproof door behind him. I went to my desk and took advantage of this first chance to open the morning mail. Fred wandered around restlessly, looking at the titles of books on the shelves, and finally sat down and lit a cigarette.
“Am I in the way?” he asked.
“Not at all,” I assured him.
“Because if I am I can wait outdoors. Only I got a little chilly. I’ve been out there since eight o’clock.”
I abandoned the mail to swivel around and stare at him in awe.
“Good God,” I said, stupefied. “You win.” I waved a hand. “You can have her.”
“Have her?” He flushed. “What are you talking about? Who do you think you are?”