"So he is--only a mere earl. Had he ever done anything except have
fat oxen, one wouldn't say so. You know what I mean by a mere clerk?
It isn't much in a man to be in a public office, and yet Mr Crosbie
gives himself airs."

"You don't suppose that Mr Crosbie is the same as John Eames," said
Bell, who, by her tone of voice, did not seem inclined to undervalue
the qualifications of Mr Crosbie. Now John Eames was a young man from
Guestwick, who had been appointed to a clerkship in the Income-tax
office, with eighty pounds a year, two years ago.

"Then Johnny Eames is a mere clerk," said Lily; "and Mr Crosbie is--
After all, Bell, what is Mr Crosbie, if he is not a mere clerk? Of
course, he is older than John Eames; and, as he has been longer at
it, I suppose he has more than eighty pounds a year."

"I am not in Mr Crosbie's confidence. He is in the General Committee
Office, I know; and, I believe, has pretty nearly the management of
the whole of it. I have heard Bernard say that he has six or seven
young men under him, and that--; but, of course, I don't know what he
does at his office."

"I'll tell you what he is, Bell; Mr Crosbie is a swell." And Lilian
Dale was right; Mr Crosbie was a swell.

And here I may perhaps best explain who Bernard was, and who was
Mr Crosbie. Captain Bernard Dale was an officer in the corps of
Engineers, was the first cousin of the two girls who have been
speaking, and was nephew and heir presumptive to the squire. His