Prisoner's Base

Wolfe nodded. "It's not too recondite for me. How about Miss Eads? Wasn't her position essentially the same as Mrs. Jaffee's? Wasn't she also a parasite? Or had the interest she had recently shown in the business made her an earner?"

"No. That was no service to the corporation. It was an interference."

"Then she had earned nothing?"

"That's right."

"And deserved nothing?"

"That's right."

"But in a week she would have taken title to ninety per cent of the company's stock, leaving you earners with nothing but your salaries. Wasn't that deplorable?"

"Yes. We all thought so."

"You, perhaps, with uncommon warmth because you are fiercely anti-feminist and hate to see a woman own or run anything?"

Pitkin sniffed. "That is not true."

"So Miss Duday told Mr. Goodwin."

"Miss Duday is spiteful and untrustworthy. About women, I merely feel that they too should be subject to the rules of bookkeeping and be permitted to take only what they earn, and on account of their defects of ability and character they are incapable of earning much more than a bare subsistence. The exceptions are very rare."

Wolfe pushed his tray back, placed his palms on the chair arms, and moved his head slowly from left to right, from Helmar to Duday, and back again, taking them in.

"I think I've had enough of you," he said, not offensively. "I'm not at all sure the evening has been well spent-whether, as Mr. Pitkin would put it, it shows a profit or loss, for you or for me." He levered himself out of his chair and upright. "Mr. Parker, will you come with me? I'd like to consult you briefly before deciding where I'm at."