"What have you done with the young gentleman who wanted to learn enough shorthand to get him a post in a newspaper office in six lessons?" enquired Mark, as usual full of interest.
"Oh, him! It wasn't him I was thinking of so much, really, though he certainly is a caution. I mean, really he is. But he's come off the six lessons stunt, all the same."
"Well done! Have you persuaded him to take a course?"
"I don't know what I've got to do with it, I'm sure," Miss Sandiloe said, with a self-conscious laugh. "But I'm taking him for private tuition now, three times a week, as well as him going to the usual classes, and he'll be in the Speed in no time."
Miss Farmer, looking more animated than when making impersonal and agonised conversation with her hostess, joined in.
"Miss Marchrose is taking the High Speed room now, Mr. Easter. She's got a beautiful pronounciation—so clear, it is."
Lady Rossiter smiled—a kind, faint smile, that, to her husband's perceptions, admirably succeeded in underlining her determination to avoid noticing Miss Farmer's slip.
"It's so wonderful of you, I think, to be so devoted to your work," she said. "That is one reason why I love the society of workers. They are always so eager about their work, and I think it is so wonderful of them."
Edna did not generally repeat herself, but the curious hostility vibrant in the air surrounding her philanthropic enterprise was making her nervous.
"I've always been keen on my job," said Cooper complacently, "but I ought to have been an engineer. I should have liked that."