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in fact I did have something that could be given to him. I took Robbie aside and said, “Robbie, there's been trouble in New York. You know I talked to you nearly ten days ago not about New York, but about being photographed with the General. You know I'm a friend of yours, don't you, Miss Robinson?”

“Yes, you are,” she said. “You're the only friend I've got. You've been good to me. You are my friend.”

I said, “This has now come to the point where somebody has told the President that there will be a rumpus in New York if you go. I know it's dirty gossip, and I know it's horrid, but I'm a woman and know the position you're in. You have to take care of him and you do take care of him. I know that if you were a man doing this, they wouldn't notice it. But because you're a woman doing the same thing that a good man secretary would do, they gossip about it. That's that. When you've got gossip going, that's that. I think you better make some pretense that you've forgotten something. Don't tell the General this.”

“Oh, I couldn't tell the General this,” she said. “He'd hit the ceiling and spill the beans.”

I said, “Come back with me. I'll take you back in the car I've got. You just take the train to New York. Nobody will see you on a train and you'll go to the office.”