The Coolidge examiner., 1932-03-04

Pity Is Akin
By JANE OSBORN

]
- was a good insurance solicitor
and sometimes she thought she
wasn't. AS she sat patiently in
/ the reception room outside Mr.. Ber-
tram Carr's private office that Jan
uary morning she was quite sure
! that she was not. She had sat there
for an hour and twenty minutes.
| lie day before she had sat there in
precisely the same chair for an
| hour, and on several days before
! that she had sat there until she
knew every angle and crevice Of
the well-furnished reception room
| by heart. She had been told that
no one had ever been able to sell
Mr.. Bertram Carr life insurance
he didn't carry any life insurance
whatever. He was thirty-five and a
bachelor, and in Terry's notebook
she had jotted down the informa-
tiOn that he had an income of about
twenty thousand a year.
Terry had been unable to get any
interview with him by telephone
She couldn't get him to consent to
see her on any preteXt she had
| been able to invent. SO now she
was simply waiting to see him.
Other days when she had sat
there she had simply had to give
up before at length he came out, or
else, or he had come out so quickly
/ and brushed by her so abruptly
/ that she had had no opportunity to
say word. Today Terry was de
termined to get an interview. She
had sat there for an hour and a half
just keeping in constant readiness
Terry was thinking of those
things when Mr.. Carrs office door
was quickly opened and with two
long steps he was in the reception
room. Terry rushed forward. She
knew she was too pretty to be
brushed aside.
Il would like to see you-just a
moment" She smiled her pretti-
est and tried to get his eye.
Il am sorry, madam" said Mr..
Bertram Carr, looking appealingly
toward the reception desk, "but !
am rushing to an important engage
ment. If you'd be so good as to
give your name, think my secretary
can see you" And then he was
off and Terry was no nearer seeing
Bertram Carr than ever.
"Oh, well, there is more than one
than one way to sell insurance, "
said the more than middle aged
Miss Larson whom Terry encOun-
tered in one of the Offices of the in
surance company for which both
worked Your line is good looks
and prettiness, looking like Fifth
avenue and Cleopatra or something
all the time. Now my approach
is entirely different. Some days
when | get the biggest hauls l go
around the shabbiest."
Surely the drab-looking Miss Lar
son had not intended to annoy
Terry, but Terry was annoyed and
felt all the more troubled every
time she thought of what the older
woman had said. 1t wouldn't have
mattered so much If she had sue
ceeded with Mr.. Carr. But she
hadn't even got an interview. He
hadn't fallen for her good looks one
little bit. Perhaps Miss Larson was
right; good looks were her line.
Terry went to bed that night
with a fixed determination to show
the world in general, and Miss Lar
son in particular, that she had
more than one string to her line.
Two days later when a rather
pale, decidedly shabby and some
what scared, cold-looking young girl
asked the reception clerk whether
she might see Mr.. Bertarm Carr the
clerk could have sworn that she
had never seen the girl before. 81
don't want to send in my name, -
said the apparently shy one, "be-
cause he might send out his secre-
tary and she would frighten me to
death, but maybe l could sit here
and just wait" So the reception
clerk let the girl wait.
She was still looking cold and
scared not to say actually hungry
an hour later when Mr.. Carr came
out of his room and she stepped
timidly toward him.
The reception clerk was amazed
when she saw Mr.. Carr 90 back to
his office with the shabby-loOking
young girl She would have been
considerably more surprised if ten
minutes later she had heard Mr..
Carr virtually giving his agreement
to take out a life insurance of an
amazingly large figure.
"I'll take this, of course" said
Mr.. Carr to the girl, 'but there is
no particular reason why | should.
You see all my kindred are amply
provided for and-Im not married"
You may be some day." said the
timid little life insurance agent.