of the bank that issued the check. “Oh, that’s good as gold, all right,” said the teller to whom she presented it. He conducted her to the office of the branch manager, who was very obsequious, so there could be no doubt that the check was real.
Janice put the bulk of the sum with a financial manager, who proceeded to increase it enormously through shrewd investments, and in no time she was one of the richest women in her part of the country and could quit her job and do anything she wanted with her life.
But before she had spent a cent hordes of people began to apply for her friendship, and the remarkable thing was that most of them had a great deal of money themselves, as much as or even more than Janice. That is to say, the expected fortune hunter was notably absent. Her new friends certainly didn’t need her financial help. There was no getting away from accepting the fact that they found her well worth knowing for herself alone, insisting on entertaining her lavishly, even refusing, until she was at the point of being offended, to let her reciprocate, and when she finally was permitted to hold a dinner party at her new mansion, the guests brought housewarming gifts such as solid-gold teacups, real teardrop diamonds for the chandelier, and original canvases from the Venetian High Renaissance.
Before long Janice had marriage proposals from the bachelor governor of a Midwestern state, a vintage motion-picture mogul, and several young leaders of industry. But she spurned them all for the moment. She enjoyed being in the world of money and power, but she concealed from her new friends her discreet practice of slipping out from time to time, dressed modestly and unaccompanied, for a few sets of tennis at the public courts, on which occasions she played well enough to hold her own with anybody. Or she dropped in at a unisex pool parlor, where she played badly, or perhaps loitered at the garden center, where she found all sorts of people who were interested in plants or at a wine shop, where she was asked her opinions of various bottles. And in all these places Janice was now extraordinarily popular. Certainly the men were wild about her, and even the women thought she was an intriguing person, and nobody among them suspected she had a dollar. But after charming all these people Janice found that she was terribly bored with them. They had served their purpose once they submitted to her. She certainly had no reason to feel beholden: what had they done for her when she needed friends? Therefore one day they saw her no more. She returned to the glittering realm to which she had been elevated by the granting of her wish. She only regretted that she had not asked sooner!
Personal Power
V ICTOR DEVLIN HAD NEVER been able to understand why he so lacked in influence over other human beings. He was bright enough to have maintained a high B average through schools and college without exerting himself unduly, sufficiently amusing to have been on intimate terms with a sequence of attractive women, and in possession of endearing qualities that caused him to be thought of as a good friend by a host of persons of either sex. Yet no one in any of these venues or categories ever changed an opinion after listening to one of his arguments, or so much as took a casual suggestion of his (ate a meal at a restaurant he recommended, at his urging saw a movie, read a magazine article, bought a certain shirt), let alone honored his wishes in matters of enduring substance.
By his mid-thirties he had married and divorced twice, both ruptures having been due, he really believed, to the inability of either wife to be persuaded by him to do or think, for a change, as he , and not she, wished. He might have accepted this state of affairs had it applied only to major projects, e.g., whether or not to have children now, whether to move to Hawaii or speculate in real estate, but when it came to a flat refusal to try, just once, salsa instead of
Janice put the bulk of the sum with a financial manager, who proceeded to increase it enormously through shrewd investments, and in no time she was one of the richest women in her part of the country and could quit her job and do anything she wanted with her life.
But before she had spent a cent hordes of people began to apply for her friendship, and the remarkable thing was that most of them had a great deal of money themselves, as much as or even more than Janice. That is to say, the expected fortune hunter was notably absent. Her new friends certainly didn’t need her financial help. There was no getting away from accepting the fact that they found her well worth knowing for herself alone, insisting on entertaining her lavishly, even refusing, until she was at the point of being offended, to let her reciprocate, and when she finally was permitted to hold a dinner party at her new mansion, the guests brought housewarming gifts such as solid-gold teacups, real teardrop diamonds for the chandelier, and original canvases from the Venetian High Renaissance.
Before long Janice had marriage proposals from the bachelor governor of a Midwestern state, a vintage motion-picture mogul, and several young leaders of industry. But she spurned them all for the moment. She enjoyed being in the world of money and power, but she concealed from her new friends her discreet practice of slipping out from time to time, dressed modestly and unaccompanied, for a few sets of tennis at the public courts, on which occasions she played well enough to hold her own with anybody. Or she dropped in at a unisex pool parlor, where she played badly, or perhaps loitered at the garden center, where she found all sorts of people who were interested in plants or at a wine shop, where she was asked her opinions of various bottles. And in all these places Janice was now extraordinarily popular. Certainly the men were wild about her, and even the women thought she was an intriguing person, and nobody among them suspected she had a dollar. But after charming all these people Janice found that she was terribly bored with them. They had served their purpose once they submitted to her. She certainly had no reason to feel beholden: what had they done for her when she needed friends? Therefore one day they saw her no more. She returned to the glittering realm to which she had been elevated by the granting of her wish. She only regretted that she had not asked sooner!
Personal Power
V ICTOR DEVLIN HAD NEVER been able to understand why he so lacked in influence over other human beings. He was bright enough to have maintained a high B average through schools and college without exerting himself unduly, sufficiently amusing to have been on intimate terms with a sequence of attractive women, and in possession of endearing qualities that caused him to be thought of as a good friend by a host of persons of either sex. Yet no one in any of these venues or categories ever changed an opinion after listening to one of his arguments, or so much as took a casual suggestion of his (ate a meal at a restaurant he recommended, at his urging saw a movie, read a magazine article, bought a certain shirt), let alone honored his wishes in matters of enduring substance.
By his mid-thirties he had married and divorced twice, both ruptures having been due, he really believed, to the inability of either wife to be persuaded by him to do or think, for a change, as he , and not she, wished. He might have accepted this state of affairs had it applied only to major projects, e.g., whether or not to have children now, whether to move to Hawaii or speculate in real estate, but when it came to a flat refusal to try, just once, salsa instead of
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