“Just the opposite to me,” declared his sister; “I can scarcely sew a button on, and I can’t do up a parcel or tie a knot. But to return to our business. Once you have a certificate, the next thing will be to find you a situation. You had better begin in some very quiet country place—a long way from Town and talk—and I will recommend you.”
“You!” and he burst into a loud laugh.
“Oh yes, you may laugh; but who else is there? We do not wish to invite the world into our family laundry.”
“Thank you, Leila.”
“Don’t be silly! I will give you an excellent character,” she continued imperturbably, “as a sober, respectable young man, most careful, obliging, and anxious to please.”
“Well, that sounds all right.”
“And you must really be, as the French advertisements say, ‘un chauffeur sérieux,’ and promise not to play the fool, and I shall get you a nice situation that I happen to know of, with two old ladies.”
“O Lord!” he expostulated; “can’t you make it a couple of old gentlemen? I’d much rather go to them.”
“Yes, no doubt you would,” she answered; “but you cannot pick and choose, and this place seems the very one for a start. These are the two Miss Parretts.”
“I say, what a name! Any cats?”