SECOND CHANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23075, 28 June 1938, Page 17

SECOND CHANCE

SYNOPSIS Trevowe and Company, of Mossford, shoe manufacturers, had an office staff composed of Mossford people. Henry Mumford, tlx secretary, is informed by Mr. Trevowe thai a new clerk, John Fingal Ferguson, has beer engaged. Mumford discusses this with Marj Donovan his secretary. Ferguson arrives from London and happens to take rooms at the home of Mrs. Goddesden, who is Mary Donovan's aunt. There he met Mary. She is interested to note that he has an air of breeding about him and is about 35 years old, and yet has been engaged in a minor capacity. She left to visit a cinema, escorted by Garrod, an Inspector of Constabulary, whn has proposed on soveral occasions but has been refused. On the following day, Sunday, Ferguson feels somewhat lonely in a strange place. On Monday he arrives ati Trevowe's, is met by Mary and then Mr. Mumford.

CHAPTER ll.—(Continued) Ferguson rose: "Good-morning, Mi Mumford," he said. "My name is Fei guson." "Oh, yes I was expecting you. Mi Trevowe said you would be hen Sit down, won't you? To be quite franl Mr. Ferguson, I've only the vaguest ( information about you. About your e: perience, I mean, and the kind of wor to put you on. Usually of course, attend to appointments to the office sta myself." "I've had a fairly extensive e> perience of office work." "In London?" "Yes. And abroad. I was some yeai in Singapore." "You quite understand, Mr. Fei guson, that, for the time being at an rate, you will occupy a comparative! junior position in the office?" "I quite understand," he said. "Then I think you had better go int the sales department. Mr. Goodspeed who is in charge of it, has been with u for many years, but he is away ill." "Thank you." "I think I should warn you that yoi are almost bound to meet with a certaii amount of . . . suspicion—l had almos said hostility—in the staff, Mr. Fer guson," the elder man said with ; certain diffidence in his manner. "Coming as a stranger?" Mr Mumford nodded: "But it won' mean anything. If you meet with an; serious difficulty I should like you ti come straight to me." "Thank you. But I hope the necessit; won't arise." "Don't misunderstand me. You wil get what the films call a 'break,' bu our people are clannish and are almos bound to regard the coming of a mai from London as a personal slight—in ; sense." "I can understand that, sir." "Mr. Trevowe himself has taken u] your references; he made that quit* clear." 4 "Yes. It was kind of him. He ha: proved a good friend." Mr. Mumford did not reply for i moment: "Quite," he said. "I'm starting afresh in Mossford Mr. Mumford," Ferguson said, and foi a moment the eyes of the two mei met. "Don't forget to come to me, Fer guson, if you think I can help you. ] have worked for and with Mr. Trevow< and his father before him, and 1 hav< a very hearty respect for his judg ment." "You are very kind." He suddenly realised that s he was alone with Mr. Mumford. Miss Dono van had evidently silently left the room "And if I'm not here, you mighi do worse than consult my secretary Miss Donovan. She's a very able gir and knows at least as much as I dc about many aspects of the business Now I'll take you along to the Sales Department." Many curious eyes followed the twc men as they passed through the main office. At the end of it they came tc a glass door leading into a rathei smaller room, and at the end of that into a still smaller one where a man was dictating a letter to a typist. "Mr. Maynard, J want to introduce Mr. Ferguson." "Pleased to meet you," said Maynard. He was a man rather older than Ferguson, with reddish hair and a pleasant smile. "For the time being Mr. Ferguson will be with you," Mr. Mumford said. "I feel certain that you will put him through his paces. Well .... good luck!" he went on to Ferguson, and turned to the door. "We heard about you on Saturday," . Maynard said. "That'll do. Miss Tyler," he went on to the girl who was waiting patiently. "I'll ring for you presently. "The bulk of our work consists of controlling the travellers," Maynard went on when the two men were alone. "Their orders come to us and we check them up before they are passod for delivery." Ferguson nodded. "You'll pick up the system—it's Mr. Goodspeed's system, not mine, by the way—and then it'll be fairly plain sailing. Had any experience of this kind of thing?" "I've had a fairly general experience." "You're a friend of the boss, I hearP" "I know him." "Well, anything Ave can do to help you, of course. Now what we've got in hand this morning. . . He wont on to explain the work, and Ferguson listened: "Now is that clear?" Maynard asked at the end. "Quito. Thank you. I'll have a shot at it, shall I?" "Go ahead. And for to-day you had better use that desk." The work was. in actual fact, perfectly simple, but rather complicated by Mr. Goodspeed's elaborate "system." Just before lunch the phone on Maynard's desk rang. "Yes?" Ferguson hoard him say, and a moment later he added: "I'll come at onco." "It's bid Mumford," he explained as he replaced the receiver. "What do you think of him, Maynard?" Mr. Mumford asked a minute or so later. "He'll be quite a useful man," Maynard replied. . i "I'm glad. It's up to us to give him a hand, I rather fancy that Mr. Trevowe will want to know, why, if he doesn't make a do of it." "I think he will. He seems to have fitted in very well. You know, sir, lie's had a better job than this before now." "I don't know anything about that, Maynard. They took up his references in London, and so it's really nothing to ' do with us. 1 just wanted to know how he was shaping." "I understand, sir," said Maynard. j "I hope you do." Miss Donovan was apparently too deeply immersed in her work to listen to what the two men were saying, but she noticed the smilo on Maynard .s face as he turned to the door, Apparently, however, she had not missed a great deal, for as the door closed, she said: "I'm glad he's shaping well. Mr. Mum ford." "So am I." "He seems an interesting typo." "That's as may be. Miss Donovan. As far as we are concerned, he cams here from the London office, and we've got to see that he ... . well, that ho doesn't fail." "Was he in the London officeP" she asked. "I didn't say he was. He came through them. They are responsible, I mean." Mr. Mumford spoke shortly, which was unlike him, and Miss Donovan turned to her work. The suspicion of which Mr. Mumford had spoken was not apparent to

By HOLLOWAY HORN Author of "George," "Two Men and Mary," etc., etc.

(COPYRIGHT)

A moving Human interest story of a man with a past, and a woman's devotion.

Ferguson, but Mossford folk rarely , show their feelings to strangers. As ! the days passed many of the staff , with whom he came into contact j betrayed a curiosity about him, and J made, indeed, undisguised attempts to j find out more about him. But he gave I nothing away. There was a reserve in him, a reticence, and by the end of the week most of them had given up attempting to find out his story. He rapidly demonstrated that he was a really able man. and it became clear to Maynard that he had not merely mastered the "system" on which the department worked, but was in a position to suggest certain obvious improvements. These suggestions were made in no arrogant spirit. Ferguson spoke diffidently: "Don't you think, Mr. Maynard . . . and so on. "It isn't my system, old chap, it's Goodspeed's," Maynard told him. "He's been here since the year dot, and it's more than I dare do to suggest any drastic alteration. He'll be back next week." "It merely struck me," Ferguson put in hurriedly. "I'm quite happy to work on the old lines." All of which was duly reported to Mr. Mumford. On the Friday afternoon Ferguson received his first pay envelope. It contained five pounds ten shillings, which was the sum that had been arranged. Within the hour, the amount in that particular envelope was known to many of the staff. It was rather more, for example, than the amount in Maynard's envelope. On the Friday evening, Maynard and several of his pals usually broke their homeward journey at the Crown, a very pleasant hostelry in the London Road. Generally their dissipation did not extend beyond a couple of glasses of beer and the custom provided an excellent opportunity for a quiet talk. Inevitably, on this occasion, Ferguson provided the main topic of conversation. "Who is this chap that William Trevowe has sent down?" one of the men asked. "He's a very decent fellow," Maynard said. "What's the idea? Pal of William's, isn't he?" "I don't know. He's as close as a clam." "A mysterious sort of chap, isn'the?" another said. "I hear that old Mumford himself knows nothing about him." "He's a gentleman," said Maynard, who had been in much closer contact with Ferguson than the others. "So are we all." "1 don't mean like that. He speaks French, for one thing." "That's nothing." "And he's been in a position of authority. He's not like an ordinary clerk. He wasn't a clerk before he came to Mossford." "Did he tell you?" "No. He's told me nothing. That's what I mean by being a gentleman. You ask him a question and he doesn't answer—not as you would say answer—but he does it so politely that you don't notice that what he has said boils down to inviting you to mind your own blinking business. Damn it all, you can't help being curious about a chap you've got to work with." "Course you can't. What's he got to hide?" "Search me," said Maynard. "He's drawing five ten." "So I heard. Young Cannock in the cashier's office told me, so I know it's right." "Mind you, he's a good man. He's got old Goodspeed's precious system taped up good and proper." "Old Mumford as good as told me that it was up to us to see that he made good," Maynard said. "Why?" Maynard shrugged his shoulders: "He's a pet lamb of William's, I suppose. But it doesn't seem right to me that he should be getting more than I am." "It isn't right!" they agreed. "Looks to me as if he's come down to stay. Old Mumford can't carry on much longer and it looks to me as if your Mr. Ferguson's going to be boss here before any of us are a lot older." "I'd wondered that," Maynard admitted.

"But that doesn't explain him. If he'd come from some big firm in London, why not say so? Why hide it? William Trevowe can do what he likes —within reason. But why all the secrecy ?" "The queer part is that old Mumford doesn't know any more about him than we do," Maynard put in. "Well, mark my words," one of them said. "He's started in the Sales. He'll go from there to another department and sooner or later he'll go to all of them. Then Mumford will go to his Jwell earned retirement'—as tno saying is— and we shall all bo calling this chap: 'Sir,' " "Shouldn't wonder," several of them said. The curiosity Ferguson had caused was not limited to Maynard and his pals. John Rossiter —"Old" Rossiter as everyone in Trevowe's called him—had been the firm's chief London traveller for many years. He was not often in Mossford but he happened to be there that Friday. And, as lie usually did, he dined with Mr. and Mrs. Mumtord. "Do you know a chap called Ferguson? John Fingnl Ferguson?" Mumford asked his guest as thev were drinking their final whiskv and soda. "No." "He wasn't at the London office?" "No. I'm certain lie wasn't. Besides, you know ho wasn't." "There are people there I don't know and I thought he might be one of them." "Why do you ask?" "He's just turned up here. William sent him, himself." "What is he?" "A clerk. William took up his references —or said he did. 1 know nothing whatever about him. A man about thirty-five or forty. Seems a very able fellow. 1 put him in the Sales Department." "Then I hope to goodness that he is able. It's about time you had somebody intelligent there." Mr. Mumford smiled; ho had heard Old Rossiter on the Sales Department before. "He's u gentleman, a man of considerable education, and I should say he lias been in a position _of authority. Yet there's something docile about him." "There's always been something 'docile' about that durned Sales Department." "Goodspeed's getting a bit past it. 1 know. But then so are many of us. We haven't done badly,, all ..things considered. But this chap Ferguson worries me. It's absurd that you should have •i man in your office of whom you know ibsolutely nothing. . It's so unlike William. Usually he takes Old colleagues ike us into his confidence,'just as his rather did." . .. . * . "He's not the man his father was." "Don't you believe it! You'll be at the office in the morning?" . "Of course. What do you think 1 mmo here for?" "The pleasure of seeing me!" "L might have a worse reason, old ■riend." "Why not have a chat with him? You'll have a dozen grouches to work iff on that department anyway, if I {now you." "I have and all!" said Old Rossiter. 'Believe me or not, I sent an order hrough from Maybury's of Hearing- • • •" ?'Then you ask Mr. John Fingal,Ferguson about it," smiled Mr. Mumford, 'and tell me afterwards what you think if him." (To be continued) I