She and I | Page 9

ever hear of the course of true love running smooth? Be a man, Frank! Say to yourself, `I'll work and win her,' and you will. Put your heart in it, and it will soon be done--sooner than you now think. There's no good in your sitting down and whining at your present defeat, like the naughty child that cried for the moon! You must be up and doing. A man's business is to overcome obstacles; it is only us, women, who are allowed to cry at home!"
"But, Mrs Clyde dislikes me," I said.
"What of that?" retorted Miss Pimpernell; "her dislike may be overcome."
"I don't think it ever will be," I said, despondingly.
"Pooh, Frank," replied the old lady;--"`never is a long day.' She's only a woman, and will change her mind fast enough when it suits her purpose to do so! You say, that she only objected on the score of your position, and from your not having a sufficient income?"
"Yes,"--I said,--"that was her ostensible reason; but, I think, she objects to me personally--in addition to having other and grander designs for Min."
"Ah, well,"--said Miss Pimpernell,--"we haven't got to consider those other motives now; she rejected your offer, at all events, on the plea of your want of fortune?"
"Yes," said I, mechanically, again.
"Then, that is all we've got to deal with, my boy,"--she said.--"Mrs Clyde is quite right, too, you know, Frank. You have got no profession, or any regular occupation. Let us see if we cannot mend matters. In the first place, are you willing to work? Would you like some certain employment on which you can depend?"--And she looked at me kindly but searchingly over her spectacles.
"Would a duck swim?" said I, using an expressive Hibernicism.
"Well, what sort of employment would you like?" she asked.
"Anything," I replied.
"Come, that's good!" she said.--"And what can you do?"
"Everything," I said.
She laughed good-humouredly.--"You've a pretty good opinion of yourself at any rate, Master Frank, if that's any recommendation:--you will never fail through want of impudence. But, I'll speak to the vicar about this. I think he could get you a nomination for a Government office."
"What, a clerkship?"--I said, ruefully, having hitherto affected to despise all the race of her Majesty's quill drivers, from Horner downwards.
"Yes, sir,"--she said,--"`a clerkship;' and a very good thing, too! You need not turn up your nose at it, Master Frank; I can see you, although I do wear glasses! Grander men than you think yourself, sir, have not despised such an opening! Here is the vicar,"--she added, as her brother walked into the room.--"How lucky! we can ask him now."
The vicar overheard her remark.
"Hullo, Frank!" said he; "what is it, that Sally and you are conspiring together? Can I do anything for you, my boy?"--he continued, in his nice kind way,--"if so, only ask me; and if it is in my power, you know that I will do it."
"He wishes to get into a Government office; don't you think you could help him?" said Miss Pimpernell.
"You want to be in harness, my boy, eh?"--said the vicar, turning to me.--"That's right, Frank. Literature will come on, in due course, all in good time. There's nothing like having regular work to do, however trifling. It not only gives you a daily object in life, but also steadies your mind, causing you better to appreciate higher intellectual employment! I thought, however, my boy, that you looked down on `Her Majesty's hard bargains,' as poor Government clerks are somewhat unjustly termed?"
"That was, because I thought they were a pack of idlers, doing nothing, and earning a menial salary for it. `Playing from ten to to four, like the fountains in Trafalgar Square,' as Punch declares," I said.
"Ah!" said the vicar, "that is a mistake, as you will soon find out when you belong to their body. They do work, and well, too. Many of the grand things on which departmental ministers pride themselves--and get the credit, too, of effecting by their own unaided efforts--are really achieved by the plodding office hacks, who work on unrecognised in our midst! Our whole public service is a blunder, my boy. There is no effective rise given in it to talent or merit, as is the case in other official circles. The `big men,' who are appointed for political purposes, get on, it is true; but, the `little men,' who labour from year's end to year's end, like horses in a mill, never have a chance of distinguishing themselves. When they are of a certain age, and attain a particular height in their office, they become superannuated, and retire; for, should a vacancy occur, of a higher standing in the public secretariat, it is not given to them--although the training of their whole life may peculiarly fit them for the post! No, it is bestowed on