But some days were worse than others; and one afternoon, a few days before her forty-eighth birthday, turned out to be especially bad. She had carried a batch of finished copy and layouts uptown for a client’s approval, and on coming back she was all the way into Hannah Baldwin’s office before discovering that she’d left it all on the back seat of the taxicab.

‘Oh, my God!’ Hannah cried, reeling back on the casters of her desk chair as if she’d been shot through the heart. Then she came forward again, placed both elbows on the desk and held her head with all ten fingers, messing up her careful hair. ‘You’ve gotta be kidding,’ she said. ‘That was finished copy. That was approved copy. It had the client’s signature on it…’

And Emily stood watching her, realizing at last how much she had always disliked her, knowing this was probably the last time she would ever face this humiliation.

‘…Total, utter carelessness,’ Hannah was saying. ‘Any child could have been trusted with a thing like this, and it’s so typical of you, Emily. And it isn’t as if you hadn’t been warned; I’ve given you every chance. I’ve been carrying you – I’ve been carrying you for years – and I simply can’t afford it any longer’

‘I have several things to tell you, Hannah,’ Emily said, proud that she was shaking only a little and that her voice came out almost steady, ‘ and the first is that I’ve worked here too long to be “fired.” I want to resign as of today.’

Hannah took her hands away from her dishevelled hair and looked into Emily’s eyes for the first time. ‘Oh, Emily, you are a child. Don’t you see I’m trying to do you a favor? If you resign you’ll have nothing. If you let me fire you, you can draw Unemployment. Don’t you even know that? Were you born yesterday?’