"Coming late to the office, you mean? Oh, no, not in the least."
"Staying late,—staying late. Six or seven o'clock if necessary,—putting your shoulder to the wheel when the coach gets into the mud. That's what I've been doing all my life. They've known what I am very well. They've always kept me for the heavy roads. If they paid, in the Civil Service, by the hour, I believe I should have drawn a larger income than any man in it. If you take the vacant chair in the next room you'll find it's no joke. It's only fair that I should tell you that."
"I can work as hard as any man," said Eames.
"That's right. That's right. Stick to that and I'll stick to you. It will be a great gratification to me to have by me a friend of my old friend De Guest. Tell him I say so. And now you may as well get into harness at once. FitzHoward is there. You can go in to him, and at half-past four exactly I'll see you both. I'm very exact, mind,—very;—and therefore you must be exact." Then Sir Raffle looked as though he desired to be left alone.
"Sir Raffle, there's one favour I want to ask of you," said Johnny.
"And what's that?"
"I am most anxious to be absent for a fortnight or three weeks, just at Easter. I shall want to go in about ten days."
"Absent for three weeks at Easter, when the parliamentary work is beginning! That won't do for a private secretary."
"But it's very important, Sir Raffle."
"Out of the question, Eames; quite out of the question."