"'You're thinking of the hotel, I suppose,' says she. 'Perhaps you are
right. My customers are mostly an old-fashioned class; it's probable
enough they might not like you. You had better suggest something else.'

"'I could hardly be an under-waiter,' says he.

"'Perhaps not,' says she; 'your manners strike me as a bit too familiar
for that.'

"Then he thought he'd try sarcasm.

"'Perhaps you'd fancy my being the boots,' says he.

"'That's more reasonable,' says she. 'You couldn't do much harm there,
and I could keep an eye on you.'

"'You really mean that?' says he, starting to put on his dignity.

"But she cut him short by ringing the bell.

"'If you think you can do better for yourself,' she says, 'there's an end
of it. By a curious coincidence the place is just now vacant. I'll keep
it open for you till to-morrow night; you can turn it over in your mind.'
And one of the page boys coming in she just says 'Good-morning,' and the
interview was at an end.

"Well, he turned it over, and he took the job. He thought she'd relent
after the first week or two, but she didn't. He just kept that place for
over fifteen months, and learnt the business. In the house he was James
the boots, and she Mrs. Wrench the landlady, and she saw to it that he