Mansfield wrote the story in February 1922 at the Victoria Palace Hotel in Montparnasse, Paris.
In October 1915, Mansfield's younger brother, Leslie Beauchamp, was killed during a grenade training drill while serving with the British Expeditionary Force in Ypres Salient, Belgium.
The boss enjoys showing off his redecorated office to him, and points out its new furniture and electric heating.
He is extremely perturbed at the sudden reference to his dead son, and expects to weep but is surprised to find that he cannot.
The boss throws the dead fly, along with the blotting paper that was underneath it for his cruel game, into the wastepaper basket.