ind for you? All you got
to do is follow up our tips and close the deal. The hall-porter could
sell Babbitt-Thompson listings! You say you're engaged to a girl, but
have to put in your evenings chasing after buyers. Well, why the devil
shouldn't you? What do you want to do? Sit around holding her hand? Let
me tell you, Stan, if your girl is worth her salt, she'll be glad to
know you're out hustling, making some money to furnish the home-nest,
instead of doing the lovey-dovey. The kind of fellow that kicks about
working overtime, that wants to spend his evenings reading trashy novels
or spooning and exchanging a lot of nonsense and foolishness with some
girl, he ain't the kind of upstanding, energetic young man, with a
future--and with Vision!--that we want here. How about it? What's your
Ideal, anyway? Do you want to make money and be a responsible member
of the community, or do you want to be a loafer, with no Inspiration or
Pep?"

Graff was not so amenable to Vision and Ideals as usual. "You bet I
want to make money! That's why I want that bonus! Honest, Mr. Babbitt,
I don't want to get fresh, but this Heiler house is a terror. Nobody'll
fall for it. The flooring is rotten and the walls are full of cracks."

"That's exactly what I mean! To a salesman with a love for his
profession, it's hard problems like that that inspire him to do his
best. Besides, Stan--Matter o' fact, Thompson and I are against bonuses,
as a matter of principle. We like you, and we want to help you so you
can get married, but we can't be unfair to the others on the staff.
If we start giving you bonuses, don't you see we're going to hurt
the feeling and be unjust to Penniman and Laylock? Right's right, and
discrimination is unfair, and there ain't going to be any of it in this
office! Don't get the idea, Stan, that because during the war salesmen
were hard to hire, now, when there's a lot of men out of work, there
aren't a slew of bright young fellows that would be glad to step in
and enjoy your opportunities, and not act as if Thompson and I were his
enemies and not do any work except for bonuses. How about it, heh? How
about it?"

"Oh--well--gee--of course--" sighed Graff, as he went out, crabwise.

Babbitt did not often squabble with his employees. He liked to like the
people about him; he was dismayed when they did not like him. It was
only when they attacked the sacred purse that he was frightened into
fury, but then, being a man given to