influential friends or relatives; so when Miss Melville was
announced, she thought more of an order for mourning then of a request
for employment. But the young lady, in her own plain way, went at once
to the point.

"You were accustomed at the time I was with you to have a bookkeeper,
who came regularly to make up your bills and your accounts. Have you
the same arrangement still?"

"Yes, and the same gentleman; a first-rate hand at his figures;
employed by many beside me," said Mrs. Dunn.

"Then he cannot miss one customer. Will you give the business to me on
the same terms, for the sake of old times?"

"To you, Miss Melville! it is not worth your having. It is only by his
having so many that he makes it pay, though he is as good an accountant
as any in Edinburgh."

"I might in time get a good many too. Surely women might put all their
work in the way of their own sex. I am quite competent; I convinced a
bank manager to-day that I was fit for a situation in his
establishment, but he did not like the idea of taking a young woman
amongst his clerks. You can have no objection on that score. You know I
will be quiet, careful, and methodical."

Mrs. Dunn was very sorry, but really nobody ever thought of having
young ladies to make up their books. It was not the custom of any
trade. A gentleman coming in gave confidence both to herself and to the
public; and she had no fault to find with Mr. McDonald--a most