The Pledge by Howard Fast Page B

him?”
    â€œSure. But Bruce, nobody has to open doors for you. With your track record during the war, any editor in town will be delighted to talk to you. I just think Bronson is a bright guy and Scandia is maybe a shade better than most houses.”
    The following day, when Bruce decided to call Bronson and give him what he had written, he reflected that it was decent of Greenberg to set it up. After all, he hardly knew Greenberg, aside from sharing quarters with him in Calcutta and passing the time of day, and as good as his word, he had spoken to Bronson.
    â€œBy all means,” Bronson agreed, after Bruce had reached him by telephone. “Suppose we say three o’clock today. I followed your stuff during the war, and it was damn good and damn enlightening, and I’m just pleased as punch to look at your manuscript. First look, you said?”
    Scandia’s offices were on Fourth Avenue, between Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Streets, and Bronson himself was a large, white-haired man of about sixty, pink-skinned and hearty in his manner and his welcome. He accepted Bruce’s manuscript as if it were eggshell precious. “I shall read it with great expectations,” he said. “You say it’s different? Bless you. What the world needs is a book about this war that is different. I’ll read this over the weekend and call you next week.” He took the manuscript out of its brown envelope and laid it reverently on his desk. “You don’t have an agent, do you?”
    â€œI’m afraid not.”
    â€œPuts the onus on me. Ah, well, I can be honest if pressed. I shall certainly read it over the weekend.”
    It was a very long and difficult weekend for Bruce. He had a date with Sally Pringle for Saturday night, and it was difficult for him to focus.. It nettled her.”Do you have a television?” she wanted to know, repeating the question a second time.
    â€œYou know I don’t,” Bruce said. “What on earth would I want with a television set?”
    â€œYou might want to connect with what’s happening in the real world. Here’s a great big change in my life, and you ask me what you would want with a television set. You might want to look at me.”
    â€œI love looking at you,” Bruce said.
    â€œI left my job.”
    â€œWhy?” He was not displeased that she had parted company with Hillsdale Fashions and the handsome Phil Sturtz. Whatever had been happening to their relationship, she was still the woman he was dating and taking to bed, even if all talk of marriage had ceased and even if on occasion she went to bed with another. Since he had no hard evidence of this, he preferred not to linger over the notion. If there was only nominal passion, there was pleasant sex and they made a handsome couple.
    â€œBecause I’ve just signed a three-year contract with the DTB network as fashion consultant and women’s editor. I’ll be on the air each afternoon at four o’clock, and if you don’t think television’s the wave of the future, Bruce, you’re simply not with it. They’ve agreed to double what I got at Hillsdale — and it’s going somewhere. Have you seen any of the statistics on the proliferation of television sets?”
    â€œI haven’t noticed.”
    â€œYou will. You certainly will.”
    Bruce made a mental note that on Monday he would buy a television set. Since his mother’s arthritis was making it increasingly difficult for her to walk any distance, Dr. Bacon had purchased a television set. Bruce had watched it on occasion and had not found it terribly enlightening, but then he had not been much of a radio fan as a kid. He had preferred the movies or the printed word.
    Sunday dragged on forever, and on Monday he decided not to leave his apartment until Bronson called him. But Bronson never called on Monday, and that night Bruce lay awake for most of the dark hours, convinced