Chapter 13
A SLIGHT, slurping noise that sounded like sewage passing under a manhole cover disturbed Cellini Smith's consciousness. He tried to banish it, but the sound persisted and finally he had to open his eyes.
Sadie, that proudly inefficient secretary to the Venetian blind business, was gazing down at him as he lay on his office couch. The slurping sound was the rhythmic mangling of a piece of gum in her mouth.
"It's time you came out of that drunken stupor," she said.
He yawned. "It's time you stopped judging others by yourself. What time is it?"
"Nearly eleven and look at the mess this place is."
She replaced the phone receiver on the switch hook which he had taken off to gain a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, and then buzzed around dusting furniture which hadn't been annoy
