THE NEW SECRETARY.
Toney had set apart two of her new rooms for the secretary, and she looked round to see that all was comfortable before his arrival. A big knee-hole writing table was so placed that it could look over the park, and there was an easy chair and even a box of cigars for his comfort.
"He'll feel very strange at first," she thought, "and I expect he'll hate messing about this work all day as much as I should if I had to be a private secretary. Gracious stars! What a heap of writing money brings with it. There's a mountain of letters already for him. I must learn to drive the motor-car and then I'll take out tired workers, that will be nice! if only I can get time for it all. Life is beautiful, isn't it, Trick?" Trick wagged his tail and assented, then hearing the carriage wheels they both flew into the hall to receive the new secretary. Jim was driving the waggonette, and Sir Evas and the young man were inside, and Toney's quick eyes caught sight of her new tall pale secretary. Sir Evas was half smiling as he introduced her.
"Here's Mr. Plantagenet Russell, Toney—— Ehem—— Miss Whitburn. I hope you won't be overwhelmed with the work expected of you."
"There's piles already," exclaimed Toney, holding out her hand, "but you are to do them just when you like. The paper-basket will be the best place for half of them. Uncle Evas has told you all my sins I expect. Mr. Diggings, will you show Mr. Russell to his room. Lady Dove isn't visible till lunch time."
"Thanks," said Mr. Plantagenet Russell slowly; he wore an eye-glass in the right eye, and slightly raised the left eyebrow. So this was the great heiress he had come to work for, he had expected somebody very different. He was not at all pleased with life in general. He had been brought up in the lap of luxury, when suddenly, just when he was half-way through his college career, his father, a lawyer, died. Then it was discovered that he had swindled his clients, and that his wife and his only son were penniless. His mother's brother had given shelter to both, and after trying several clerkships, Mr. Plantagenet Russell had by chance heard of this post, and much to his surprise had obtained it. Plantagenet had thought this would be a far easier life than mere clerkships. The heiress was, of course, to be beautiful, and he could take life in the leisurely fashion which he deemed to be consistent with his early bringing up. The disgrace incurred by his father's defalcation weighed heavily on Plantagenet Russell, but he hoped this fact was but little known, and he himself was perfectly trustworthy as far as money was concerned. Here again life had been very unfair to him, and now he felt taken in because the heiress was so unlike his expectations, her very movements denoted a youthful energy which might prove most inconvenient, and which was not at all consistent with riches. In Plantagenet's mind to be poor when you had once been rich, was a disgrace very ill deserved.
Lunch time brought the members of Aldersfield together, and Plantagenet's spirits rose when Sir Evas introduced him to Lady Dove. Here was a lady of high degree who knew her own position. He bowed low and with great deference, and Lady Dove immediately took a liking to him. She saw that this young man recognised that she was Lady Dove, of Aldersfield House, and she had heard he had once been rich.
"I am glad you are coming to assist my niece, Mr. Russell, with the many duties wealth should entail upon her. You will, I hope, help her to carry out these duties as she has had very little experience. Of course those born to wealth know how hardly the duties of it press upon the conscientious mind." She looked sympathetically at him, and Plantagenet Russell was comforted.
"I shall endeavour to follow your wishes in all things, Lady Dove," said the secretary with another bow. Lady Dove smiled upon him. A young man who deferred to her wishes warmed her heart, "so unlike that stuck-up, conceited Lewis Waycott," she mentally said.
"I am sure your presence here will be a real satisfaction to my niece" (since her accession of fortune Toney had been usually spoken of as "my niece"), "and she will benefit greatly by having you here. Do have some of that pheasant, I daresay you will like a little shooting. Sir Evas is so glad of a companion when he goes out with his gun. Our preserves are really most satisfactory this year."