CHAPTER X

THE HOUSEKEEPER SCHEMING


If Mrs. Bradley had been wiser, she would have felt less confident of
her nephew's producing a favorable impression upon Mr. Wharton. She
resolved to open the subject at the breakfast table.

"I didn't know, Mr. Wharton," she commenced, "that you intended to
engage a reader."

"Nor did I propose to do so until last evening."

"I think--you'll excuse me for saying so--that you will find that boy
too young to suit you."

"I don't think so. He reads very clearly and distinctly."

"If I had known you thought of engaging a reader, I would have asked you
to engage my nephew."

"Indeed, I was not aware that you had a nephew in the city. Is he a
boy?"

"No; he is a young man. He was twenty years old last June."