t I can do it within a week or ten
days, or at least gain an armistice. And you needn't worry about Sayers.
I'll tell him how the matter stands. You can put in your time for a week
or two scouting around car agencies here in New York, and in the
meantime, can consider yourself employed. Meet me here to-morrow at
three o'clock."

Jimmy experienced several paradoxes in his surroundings when he stepped
briskly out of the skyscraper wherein he had been entertained. It was
nearly five o'clock in a dark afternoon, but the universe seemed filled
with sunshine; heavy flakes were falling softly, but they appeared rose
petals; men and women wore overcoats but the air was benignantly soft
and warm; each sputtering arc light had a rainbow or a beautiful halo;
street cars clanged, taxis honk-honked, the wheels of trucks screeched
and ground across paving blocks and metal rails; but the whole blended
into a strange triumphal march as if performed by some immense band of
music. Mr. James Gollop had to fight an impulse to sing, dance, shout
and altogether conduct himself with the improprieties that are
chronicled against one King David, who played on timbrels and recklessly
jazzed himself out of his job. Unlike King David, he came to his senses
in time to commune with himself and to admonish himself.

"Steady, Jimmy! Steady! Whoa there! Back up! Ca'm yourself! Ca'm
yourself. You've got the job, but there's a lot of work to be done
before you become part owner of the finest car on earth, the peerless
wonder of the transportation world, the winged victory of the roads.
Don't let your head swell, James. Better keep it solid bone than have it
turn into a toy balloon; because the latter can be pricked with a bare
bodkin."

But nevertheless his happiness was so great, his hopes so high, his
dreams so insurgent, that he longed, most fervently, to share his glad
news with someone. As he said to himself, "If I can't tell someone
pretty soon, I'll just naturally blow up! That's all there is to that!"

And evidently the "someone" he wished to make his confidant was pretty
well known in the back of his head, for he suddenly hurried out to the
nearest corner and boarded a car that would take him into old New York.

As the car came under the big electric sign reading "Gonfaroni's" it
shone up there in the heavens like a lighthouse to a homecoming mariner,
and he blithely stepped off and hastened down the side street to the
entrance of MacDougal