Barry Pain

“ I've got a man coming up to-morrow. He may buy a Pegasus, or he may buy some other car. Anyhow, he's going to buy a car, and we should prefer that he bought a Pegasus. He's a nervous kind of man, and my first idea was that in order to make him feel quite secure I would drive him myself. Now I'll change my mind. He'd be more impressed if I sent the car out with a girl. If you sell the car to him we will pay you a small commission. Remember he's a nervous man. You don't want to show him how fast the car can go. ”

“ So one afternoon I put on gorgeous apparel and walked into the showroom of the Pegasus people looking exactly as if I were about to buy a car. I even felt a little like it too. A tall, handsome man in a frock coat and a powerful little fellow in a dirty overall removed their attention from a car's duodenum as I approached. The handsome man came forward. The powerful squat man remained by the car ”

“ My idea was to work for your firm when you think I am good enough.”
“You drive all right. I'll guarantee you know a lot more about the car than a good many men do who are driving it about the country at present. But what was it that you are proposing to do for us? “
“I am proposing to show cars for you. The fact is that your car looks a little bit complicated at first. If an intending purchaser found that a young girl understood it and drove it easily he would be reassured.”
“Yes,” said Mr. James reflectively. ”

“ He told me that his daughter was a wonderful girl, and I believed him. He waved one hand over the assorted boxes on the counter. “I never touch anything of this kind now,” he said. “One loses one's taste for it as one gets older.” So Mr. Saxe was happily reclaimed.
The Pegasus people began now to manufacture a light, cheap 61⁄2-h.p. runabout car. It was entered for a reliability trial, and Mr. James told me that I was to drive it. ”

“ I added.
“Yes, of course, miss,” said the handsome man, “but you see—well, so much of the work is hardly suited for a lady. Some of it requires a good deal of muscular strength. Then, if I may mention it, you would spoil your hands. Then, again, you would hardly like to work in our repairing shop among the ordinary workmen who are there. There really are many difficulties. Hadn't you better think it over, perhaps?”
“Marshall!” It was the voice of the powerful man in the dirty overall. ”

“ Buy a car? I'm more likely to sell one. All I want at present is to understand the car thoroughly and to know how to drive it.”
The handsome man hesitated. The man in the dirty overall lifted up a bit of the car's femoral artery, looked at it, and then gave his undivided attention to the handsome man and myself. ”

“ He got one like it, and we tuned it up for him and found him a driver. He was in great trouble about myself. If one of the ordinary drivers had taken him he would have tipped the man, but he felt that he could not tip me, although he could see that I was an employed person. He sent me a charming letter of thanks and a very good motor rug. And I got my commission. Better still, I had now got back my self-respect.
After this I often drove for Mr. James when he wanted to show a car. Naturally, I did not always find a purchaser, but on the whole I was fairly successful. Mr. ”