A Perilous Secret | Page 8

on a
tolerably jaunty air, and said, cheerfully, "I beg your pardon, sir; can I
claim your attention for a moment?"
"What do you want?" asked Bartley, but like a man whose mind was
elsewhere.

"Only employment for my talent, sir. I hear you have a vacancy for a
manager."
"Nothing of the sort. I am manager."
Hope drew back despondent, and his haggard countenance fell at such
prompt repulse. But he summoned courage, and, once more acting
genial confidence, returned to the attack.
"But you don't know, sir, in how many ways I can be useful to you. A
grand and complicated business like yours needs various acquirements
in those who have the honor to serve you. For instance, I saw a small
engine at work in your yard; now I am a mechanic, and I can double the
power of that engine by merely introducing an extra band and a couple
of cogs."
"It will do as it is," said Bartley, languidly, "and I can do without a
manager."
Bartley's manner was not irritated but absorbed. He seemed in all his
replies to Hope to be brushing away a fly mechanically and languidly.
The poor fly felt sick at heart, and crept away disconsolate. But at the
very door he turned, and for his child's sake made another attempt.
"Have you an opening for a clerk? I can write business letters in French,
German, and Dutch; and keep books by double entry."
"No vacancy for a clerk," was the weary reply.
"Well, then, a foreman in the yard. I have studied the economy of
industry, and will undertake to get you the greatest amount of labor out
of the smallest number of men."
"I have a foreman already," said Bartley, turning his back on him
peevishly, for the first time, and pacing the room, absorbed in his own
disappointment.
Hope was in despair, and put on his hat to go. But he turned at the
window and said: "You have vans and carts. I understand horses
thoroughly. I am a veterinary surgeon, and I can drive four-in-hand. I
offer myself as carman, or even hostler."
"I do not want a hostler, and I have a carman."
Bartley, when he had said this, sat down like a man who had finally
disposed of the application.
Hope went to the very door, and leaned against it. His jaw dropped. He
looked ten years older. Then, with a piteous attempt at cheerfulness, he
came nearer, and said: "A messenger, then. I'm young and very active,

and never waste my employer's time."
Even this humble proposal was declined, though Hope's cheeks burned
with shame as he made it. He groaned aloud, and his head dropped on
his breast.
His eye fell on the will lying on the ground; he went and picked it up,
and handed it respectfully to Bartley.
Bartley stared, took it, and bowed his head an inch or two in
acknowledgment of the civility. This gave the poor daunted father
courage again. Now that Bartley's face was turned to him by this
movement, he took advantage of it, and said, persuasively:
"Give me some kind of employment, sir. You will never repent it."
Then he began to warm with conscious power. "I've intelligence,
practicability, knowledge; and in this age of science knowledge is
wealth. Example: I saw a swell march out of this place that owns all the
parish I was born in. I knew him in a moment--Colonel Clifford. Well,
that old soldier draws his rents when he can get them, and never looks
deeper than the roots of the grass his cattle crop. But I tell you he never
takes a walk about his grounds but he marches upon millions--coal! sir,
coal! and near the surface. I know the signs. But I am impotent: only
fools possess the gold that wise men can coin into miracles. Try me, sir;
honor me with your sympathy. You are a father--you have a sweet little
girl, I hear."--Bartley winced at that.--"Well, so have I, and the hole my
poverty makes me pig in is not good for her, sir. She needs the sea air,
the scent of flowers, and, bless her little heart, she does enjoy them so!
Give them to her, and I will give you zeal, energy, brains, and a million
of money."
This, for the first time in the interview, arrested Mr. Bartley's attention.
"I see you are a superior man," said he, "but I have no way to utilize
your services."
"You can give me no hope, sir?" asked the poor fellow, still lingering.
"None--and I am sorry for it."
This one gracious speech affected poor Hope so that he could not speak
for a moment. Then he fought for manly dignity, and said, with a
lamentable mixture