"Well, an office boy. And he got to be a ledger clerk. And he became an accountant. And then manager. And then partner. No, Amy, he's not married, as far as I know. And instead of marrying he's stuck to work and he's just bought a newspaper of some sort. So I suppose he's presently going into Parliament, and intends to be in the Cabinet in five years. He'll attack the Government in his paper until he's offered a job; and then they'll give him an Under-Secretaryship. Then he'll push out the old chap above him, and become a Minister. And there you are."
"Very nice. He's rich, then?" Amy was as sharp and persistent as the claws of a playing kitten.
"I s'pose so. I don't know. He's the industrious apprentice."
Unperceived by his hearers, Harry was sneering a little, as one always does at industriousness, with the suggestion that it is a common vice, whereas it is a chimera.
"What's the paper he's bought?" asked Jack Penton. "If it's a daily he'll burn his fingers. I thought he was in the City."
"I don't know what the paper is." Harry's motion towards Jack, however graceful and even consciously charming, showed that he was busy with his more honest thoughts. They became vocal, and his voice, hitherto so ingratiatingly warm, had lost all quality. It was merely cautious and speculative. "I wonder if he'd give me the job of Sports Editor on it," Harry said.
"Take it," jeered Amy. "Take it. That's the sort of thing you do, isn't it?"
Harry smiled again, altogether recovered, and once again the teasing comrade he had been. It was a most welcome return.
"I will," he assured them. "You may regard it as taken. I'll just tell Mayne about it before he goes."