A Simple Enquiry is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...

. It was published in 1927 in the collection Men Without Women.

Synopsis

A major calls his 19-year old orderly into his room and questions him about his personal life. He appears to be propositioning the orderly, and when his advances are effectively rebuffed he dismisses the orderly from the room, with the understanding that he will not press the issue.