The walls were papered in a pattern of ribbon and roses, there was a rocking horse in the corner and an oleograph of the sacred heart over the mantelpiece.
Up-stairs he found a letter waiting for him. It was a mimeographed notice urging " the boys" in condescendingly colloquial language to pay the dues of the American Legion.
And so, thousands and thousands of telephone calls crisscross the city each morning in a groping for human contact away from the roar of the mimeograph machines and the hollow thunder of ghost-written inanities.