MISS MANNERS
Prompt - Miss Manners : Use the words 'please' and 'thank you' in your writing
"Miss Manners, could you take some dictation please?" Mr Morrison had come to her desk to ask, not just stuck his head around the door like so many others would. He always said 'please', even though it wasn't an order you could choose to ignore. He always thanked her for her work, always made a point of saying 'good morning Miss Manners' and 'good night Miss Manners'. He wished her a pleasant evening and asked how she was each morning.
The secretary got up with her usual sullen reluctance and followed her boss into his office. They sat down, she with pencil and pad poised, looking down at the blank page ready to make the first squiggles of shorthand. He paused for a moment, trying, as he did nearly every day, wondering what had turned the woman from the bright, bubbly, attractive girl he'd had the pleasure of working with for three years, into the surly, uncommunicative woman she'd become in the past nine months. It couldn't be anything he'd done, surely? But this was no time to ponder, on with the work, and he began to order his thoughts and let the words stumble out.
"Dear Mr Gormley, Thank you for your letter of the seventeenth inst. Your proposals have several merits which interest me, and I would like you to come to our offices for detailed discussions on the possibilities your ideas open up. Of particular interest... no, delete those three words please Miss Manners. The suggestion that we could automate our accounts using..."
He paused again, uncertain of the word. The secretary sighed. Morrison looked askance at her, but the face remained resolutely pointed towards the paper.
"...a computer... That's what they call them, isn't it Miss Manners?"
"I really wouldn't know sir." The head remained bowed.
"Well, it will have to do. Where was I?" She read back the uncompleted sentence to him.
"Ah yes... a computer is of particular interest. I hope that you are well practiced in explaining the complexities of these machines to the lay person, as it is not something the firm of Grafton and Sons has had experience of to date."
He paused again, hoping she'd look up. No luck.
Thank you Miss Manners. Please finish it off with an invitation to Mr Gormley to come and see me - next Tuesday would be ideal, if there's space in the diary. I think we should give it a couple of hours. And invite Mr Spencer along too. You'll minute of course."
"Will that be all for now sir?"
Morrison's turn to sigh. It was like dealing with a porcupine. "That will be all Miss Manners, thank you very much."
The woman rose, made her way back to her desk, and set about arranging the meeting. Composed in her movements, efficient at her task, furious of expression. And in her head asking the question that she asked every day. Why, nine months after she'd married Joe, did the idiot in there still call her Miss Manners, when she was now Mrs Rask? No amount of pleases and thank yous could cancel out the offence.
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