Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 28, 1928 — page 101: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE PROPER APPROACH, Take Davis, for example. He has a high, bulging forehead. ‘That’s called a ‘slow’ forehead, and means that he thinks slowly. He’s smart enough, but his mind is better for memorizing than for snap judgment such as we were trying to force out of him. He needs lots of details about a thing to make the idea soak in. _ “Then, take his chin. Sticks ’way out—a ‘slow’ chin. That means that he acts slowly. His mind is fully made up before he acts. No use trying to rush him into anything. The only way to ‘ sell’ him is to give him all the pos- sible details about a proposition, so that he can judge it from all angles.” “But how could you do that?” ob- jected Gordon. “ Thought he was al- ways too busy to talk.” “ That ‘too busy’ is only an excuse of his—sort of a protection he uses to keep from becoming confused at rapid- fire arguments from slick salesmen. He knows his stuff, but he needs time to think it over. Of course, he really is a hard worker. Hts big nose shows lots of energy. ‘ But L got around that excuse. Ever notice his short upper lip? Vanity. Well, | soft-soaped him into thinking that I only wanted to get his valuable opinion as an expert on skipples, which he was glad to give me. I told him that I might want his remarks for pub- lication, which tickled his vanity some more. “All that is true enough; any firm is always glad to get the exact dope on what a customer firm expects of its product, and also his remarks would make a nice story for our sales- men’s journal. “When he got through telling me what he would like in the way of skip- ples, I gave him the full and complete details regarding our skipple, typewrit- ten in such a form that he had plenty of time to digest them. As a result, he found that our product very nearly tallied with his own remarks, and the 531 i natural result of that was for him to give me an order. And there it is.” _ “Well, that’s rich!” exclaimed Gor- don. ‘ You’re due for a raise for this, Witt.” “Thanks,” grinned Rodney, rising. “Tl probably need it. I’ve learned some other things about characterology and I’m in a hurry to trv them out. See you to-morrow.” . Margaret herself answered his ring and showed her surprise at his calling at that hour. Her surprise was even greater, however, when he drew her to him and planted a kiss on her lips. For a moment she struggled, then hid her face on his shoulder with a sigh. “What’s come over you, Rodney?” she asked later, when able to talk ra- tionally. “ How did you ever come to do this so suddenly ?”’ “Your book,” he answered, grin- ning. “ That stuff worked with Davis, so I thought I'd try it on you.” “And it worked again?” “Tl say it did! Margaret, why did you always act so cold and indifferent to me when you have such a long, af- fectionate little finger? And your up- per lip is short, too—you show passive affection. And you have a little dim- ple of affection in your chin.” ‘“‘ | had to, dear,” she said. “‘ 1 didn’t want to become engaged just yet, and I had studied you carefully, and knew that you would take advantage of the least sign of affection on my part. You have a quick, impulsive chin, but your face is a trifle narrow, and I knew that you would be just a little bit timid or uncertain, in spite of your energetic nose. So I had to act a part, but I’m glad it’s over now.” “ That goes for me, too. And now, if you don’t mind, dear, I’d like to analyze your father a little while be- fore | put the proposition up to him. And, if he wants facts or details, I can give him plenty of either now that I’ve got a raise.” THE END COPMMICLOOOKS com