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what he had heard about me that I was the person he wanted. I said, “What about Paul Kesten?”, the man to whom I had been speaking the night before. He said, “Paul doesn't want to be considered because of his health. I'd like you to take the job.” I said I wanted some time to think about it. I didn't say to him what I realized at the moment. This was the only time I'd ever had a one-on-one conversation with the man. I felt that I wanted to get some better background on what was expected. I said, “Can I have a couple of days to think about it and I'll get back to you?” He said, “Oh, sure. Well, let's go back to the house.” We walked back in the rain. I don't think this whole conversation took as long as its taking me to recite it. We walked back up to the house. The back door of the house was a split door. I guess some of them are called Dutch doors. At any rate, the top hinges independently of the bottom. The bottom was locked and the top was open. He opened the top and reached inside to release of the lower half of the door. As he was doing that, he turned and looked at me and said, “Well, then you'll take care of the announcement on Monday.” I said, “Gee, I thought I had.” “Oh, yes,” he said, “Let me know when you're ready to talk.” That, as I recall, was the first Saturday in September, and I didn't see him again until Christmas Eve. We ran into each other. He was getting off the elevator, and I was leaving. That was the only time I'd seen him. I said, “Gee, I had sort of been hoping to get together.” He said, “Oh, yes.” He'd been busy or something like that. In fact, he'd been very busy. He was in the process of getting a divorce. He was mixed up in a lot of other activities. He wasn't around the office very much in that period. I said, “When you have time, I'll be glad to talk.” He said, “Do you want to do it now?” Now, with him was a very attractive lady carrying a bunch of blue Tiffany boxes and Christmas presents and things. He said, “Minne [Astor] do you mind waiting out here while I go in the office and talk to Frank?” So he dumped her and her mink coat and all the boxes out in the lobby of the twentieth floor of the building, and we trotted into the office. I said the fact that he hadn't made any effort to contact me during those three