and how long have they been with you?"

"Now you exact details with which only Mrs. Packard is
conversant. I don't know anything about the servants. I do not
interest myself much in matters purely domestic, and Mrs. Packard
spares me. You will have to observe the servants yourself."

I made another note in my mind while inquiring:

"Who is the young man who was here just now? He has an uncommon
face."

"A handsome one, do you mean?"

"Yes, and--well, what I should call distinctly clever."

"He is clever. My secretary, Miss Saunders. He helps me in my
increased duties; has, in a way, charge of my campaign; reads,
sorts and sometimes answers my letters. Just now he is arranging
my speeches--fitting them to the local requirements of the
several audiences I shall be called upon to address. He knows
mankind like a book. I shall never give the wrong speech to the
wrong people while he is with me."

"Do you like him?--the man, I mean, not his work."

"Well--yes. He is very good company, or would have been if, in
the week he has been in the house, I had been in better mood to
enjoy him. He's a capital story-teller."