The Foolish Immortals Author:Paul Gallico Joe Spear, age 36, smart, fast, experienced-and a failure-was $300 away from being rock-bottom, stony broke and no prospects. Hannah Bascombe was said to be the richest woman in the world and at the age of 76 feared only two things: death and taxes. — Joe needed a Big Idea to get back on his feet and when he read a newspaper account of how Hanna... more »h Bascombe wanted to outlive the government to keep her fortune from them Joe decided to go to work. Armed with some convincing Biblical facts on longevity, and in partnership with a young Polish Jew named Ben-Isaac, Joe set out for his initial interview with Hannah, full of confidence. But Joe hadn't reckoned with Clary Adams, Miss Bascombe's beautiful secretary-companion, who saw the transparencey of his scheme right away and did her best to keep him from seeing her employer. Joe, on the other hand, saw through Clary-saw her as a girl who had sublimated her natural instincts for love and warmth in return for the security and luxury of life as Hannah Bascombe's confidante.« less