Lady John laughed. 'You were too old!'
He nodded. 'Her future husband, she said, was probably just entering Eton.'
'Exactly like her.'
'No, no.' Dick Farnborough waived the subject away. 'I wanted to see you about the secretaryship.'
'You didn't get it then?'
'No. It's the grief of my life.'
'Oh, if you don't get one you'll get another.'
'But there is only one,' he said desperately.
'Only one vacancy?'
'Only one man I'd give my ears to work for.'