H.S. Wift: A Thousand Miles... Panic Sets In
By 10am that morning, H. had begun to panic. He was still staring at the commission for Lord Atley, but Peedy was on his seventh order of the morning. The other junior writer who shared the office, R.Q. Uick, was well into his tenth despite the lateness of his arrival and the resulting stern lecture from Mr. Jeroboam Sloan, one of the firm’s senior partners.
Shortly after 11am, Sloan collected the morning’s completed orders. Five minutes later, Sloan urgently requested H.‘s presence in his office where Sloan noted H.’s failure to complete any orders so far that day.
H. had been a junior writer with the firm for a little over a year at this point, and had been one of the most productive that the firm had ever employed, but he was also clearly in a bind. One of the senior writers had been dismissed from the firm several months previously after only three days blocked. H. needed work and there were few enough openings in London in the profession he loved and in which he had demonstrated proficiency.