The Catbird Seat

“If any of the staff at F & S had seen him buy the cigarettes, they would have been astonished, for it was generally known that Mr. Martin did not smoke, and never had. No one saw him.”

In the opening lines, the author reveals the depths of Mr. Martin’s deception and the reliability of his routine. His habits are so reliable that they are known to everyone at F & S. Thurber also uses the act of buying cigarettes as foreshadowing of further deviations from Mr. Martin’s routine. The fact that no one saw him buy the cigarettes is important, because it will make Mrs. Barrows seem delusional when she reports him to Mr. Fitweiler.

“It was just a week to the day since Mr. Martin had decided to rub out Mrs. Ulgine Barrows. The term ‘rub out’ pleased him since it suggested nothing more than the correction of an error—in this case an error of Mr. Fitweiler.”

Mr. Martin euphemizes an act as heinous and irreversible as murder as the mere correction of a mistake. He treats her as he would treat any office problem—as something to be eradicated. Not only that, but he also views the murder as the correction of someone else’s mistake.

“Mr. Martin had spent each night of the past week working out his plan and examining it. As he walked home now he went over it again. For the hundredth time he resented the element of imprecision, the margin of guesswork that entered into the business.”

Mr. Martin considers trivialities like guesswork and imprecision as mortal sins worthy of a death sentence. The planned murder of Mrs. Barrows has more uncertainty in it than his tasks at the office, and he is frustrated that he cannot bring more control to the situation. This is another way in which Mrs.