n with the rest of the
mail. No man wants a secretary whom he cannot trust even with letters of
this sort, but almost any secretary worth having will feel a certain
amount of delicacy in opening them unless he is requested to do so. When
these letters are from people who write often the secretary grows to
recognize the handwriting from the outside of the envelope, and
therefore does not need to open them. In other cases it is sometimes
possible to distinguish a personal from a business letter. These should
be handled according to the wishes of the man to whom they are directed.
Many business men turn practically everything--even the settlement of
their family affairs--over to their secretaries. It is a personal
matter, and the secretary's part in it is to carry out the wishes of his
employer.

By the time the mail is sorted the president has come in.

He rings for his secretary, telephones for him, sends a messenger for
him, or else goes to his desk himself and asks him to come in and take
dictation. There is no special courtesy or discourtesy in any of these
methods. It depends on how far apart the desks are, how busy he is, and
a number of other things. He does not yell for his secretary to come in.
He manages to get him there quietly. It is not necessary for him to rise
when the secretary enters (even if the secretary is a woman) though he
may do so (and it is a very gracious thing, especially if the secretary
is a woman) but he should greet him (or her) with a pleasant
"Good-morning."

The secretary takes his place in the comfortable chair that has been
provided for him, with notebook and pencil in hand and at least one
pencil in reserve. He waits for the president to begin, and listens
closely so that he may transcribe as rapidly as he speaks. If he fails
to understand he waits until they come to the end of a sentence before
asking his employer to repeat. It is much better to do so then than to
depend on puzzling it out later or coming back and asking him after he
has forgotten what was said.

Telephone interruptions and others may come during the dictation but the
secretary waits until he is dismissed or until the pile of letters has
disappeared.

When the president has finished it is the secretary's time to begin
talking. He consults him about the various letters upon which he needs
his advice and makes notations in shorthand on them. He reports on the
various calls that have come in and the house memoranda