ike a hornet. Not five minutes went by without callers or
interruptions of some sort.

Most amazing of all, he found, was the miscellaneous passion for
palaver displayed by Big Business. Immediately he was invited to join
innumerable clubs, societies, merchants' associations. Every day would
arrive letters, on heavily embossed paper--"The Sales Managers Club will
hold a round-table discussion on Friday at one o'clock. We would greatly
appreciate it if you would be with us and say a few words."--"Will you
be our guest at the monthly dinner of the Fifth Avenue Guild, and give
us any preachment that is on your mind?"--"The Merchandising Uplift
Group of Murray Hill will meet at the Commodore for an informal
lunch. It has been suggested that you contribute to the discussion on
Underwriting Overhead."--"The Executives Association plans a clambake
and barbecue at the Barking Rock Country Club. Around the bonfire a few
impromptu remarks on Business Cycles will be called for. May we count on
you?"--"Will you address the Convention of Knitted Bodygarment Buyers,
on whatever topic is nearest your heart?"--"Will you write for Bunion
and Callous, the trade organ of the Floorwalkers' Union, a thousand-word
review of your career?"--"Will you broadcast a twenty-minute talk on
Department Store Ethics, at the radio station in Newark? 250,000 radio
fans will be listening in." New to the strange and high-spirited world
of "executives," it was natural that Gissing did not realize that the
net importance of this kind of thing was absolute zero. It did strike
him as odd, perhaps, that merchants did not dare to go on a junket or
plan a congenial dinner without pretending to themselves that it had
some business significance. But, having been so amazingly lifted into
this atmosphere of great affairs, he felt it was his duty to the store
to play the game according to the established rules. He was borne
along on a roaring spate of conferences, telephone calls, appointments,
Rotarian lunches, Chamber of Commerce dinners, picnics to talk tariff,
house-parties to discuss demurrage, tennis tournaments to settle the
sales-tax, golf foursomes to regulate price-maintenance. Of all these
matters he knew nothing whatever; and he also saw that as far as the
business of Beagle and Company was concerned it would be better not
to waste his time on such side-issues. The way he could really be of
service was in the store itself, tactfully lubricating that complic