remained for a couple of hours, during which every clerk in the
establishment came to have a look at him. At last he was ushered
into the Secretary's room.

'Ah!' said the Secretary, 'your name is Tudor, isn't it?'

Charley confessed to the fact.

'Yea,' said the Secretary, 'I have heard about you from Sir
Gilbert de Salop.' Now Sir Gilbert de Salop was the great family
friend of this branch of the Tudors. But Charley, finding that no
remark suggested itself to him at this moment concerning Sir
Gilbert, merely said, 'Yes, sir.'

'And you wish to serve the Queen?' said the Secretary.

Charley, not quite knowing whether this was a joke or not, said
that he did.

'Quite right--it is a very fair ambition,' continued the great
official functionary--'quite right--but, mind you, Mr. Tudor, if
you come to us you must come to work. I hope you like hard work;
you should do so, if you intend to remain with us.'

Charley said that he thought he did rather like hard work.
Hereupon a senior clerk standing by, though a man not given to
much laughter, smiled slightly, probably in pity at the unceasing
labour to which the youth was about to devote himself.

'The Internal Navigation requires great steadiness, good natural