RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31908, 8 February 1969, Page 19

RANDOM REMINDER

SHADY WITH THE LADY

The duplicity of women has been the subject of much research and comment ever since pencil and paper were invented; but from a southern source comes an account of a man who qualifies easily if there were prizes for low cunning. Our correspondent says that for some years he worked in the large accounting section of a very large business organisation, and that the subject of this tale, who shall be called Don, worked with him. Although Don was in a good position and could well afford the best of lunches, it was his habit to repair, at the

meal break, to a nearby hotel and there eat four little sandwiches and drink two, and no more than two glasses of beer. This practice he observed for six years. But just before Christmas, the company secretary realised that the number of office girls and typists leaving would be far greater than usual; the lack of girls threatened a crisis. Something had to be done; so he asked Mrs Don, who had been a senior secretary, expert shorthandtypist, etc., to help out for a few weeks. It was therefore with some interest that the rest of them noticed Don, a

veteran of the African campaign, having little picnic lunches on the lawn v with his Wife-. It all seemed to go along very wqll, but there, were some moments of tension among the staff while Mrs Don was at Work. For it had long been Don’s habit to hand her his fortnightly wage packet. 'Fortunately, she was not asked, during her stay, to make up the wages. Which was just as well, otherwise she might have discovered that for all those years, Don had been subtracting 30 shillings before the hand-over ceremony.