The Curious Quest by E. Phillips Oppenheim

At about five o'clock on the following afternoon, Bliss drove the car into the garage of the Sun Motor Company. He was covered with dust and a little tired after his long ride from Salisbury. Otherwise, he was in excellent spirits. It was a month nearer to the end of his great experiment, he had four weeks' wages to draw, and with reasonable luck, he felt almost certain of being taken on again as a regular chauffeur.

He drove the car into a vacant space and stopped to look about him. The garage seemed unusually empty, and there was an absence of any stir or sign of business pressure. He made his way to the office. The youthful manager was sitting there, smoking a cigarette and reading a newspaper.