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. "Hello, Miss Leda! How nice to see you!"
"You, too, Aggie. Will you tell Daddy we're here?"
"Of course." She looked at Thorby.
"Oh," said Leda. "I forgot. This is Rudbek of Rudbek."
Aggie jumped to her feet "Oh, dear me! I didn't know -- I'm sorry, sir!"
Things happened quickly. In minutes Thorby found himself with an office of quiet magnificence, with a quietly magnificent secretary who addressed him by his double-barreled title but expected him to call her "Dolores." There seemed to he unlimited genies ready to spring out of walls at a touch of her finger.
Leda stuck with him until he was installed, then said, "I'll run along, since you insist on being a dull old businessman." She looked at Dolores. "Or will it be dull? Perhaps I should stay." But she left.
Thorby was intoxicated with being immensely wealthy and powerful. Top executives called him "Rudbek," junior executives called him "Rudbek of Rudbek," and those still more junior crowded their words with "sirs" -- he could judge status by how he was addressed.
While he was not yet active in business -- he saw Weemsby rarely and Judge Bruder almost never -- anything he wanted appeared quickly. A word to Dolores and a respectful young man popped in to explain legal matters; another word and an operator appeared to show moving stereocolor of business interests anywhere, even on other planets
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