Chapter Nine.
In Office Hours.
“Now, my dear Mr Crampton, believe me, I am only actuated by a desire to do good.”
“That’s exactly what actuates me, sir, when I make bold, after forty years’ service with you and your father, to tell you that you have made a great mistake.”
“All men make mistakes, Crampton,” said Van Heldre, to his plump, grey, stern-looking head clerk.
“Yes, sir; but if they are then worth their salt they see where they have made a mistake, and try and correct it. We did not want him.”
“As far as actual work to be done, no; but I will tell you plainly why I took on the young man. I wish to help my old friend in a peculiarly troubled period of his life.”
“That’s you all over, Mr Van Heldre,” said the old clerk, pinching his very red nose, and then arranging his thin hair with a pen-holder; “but I can’t feel that it’s right. You see the young man don’t take to his work. He comes and goes in a supercilious manner, and treats me as if I were his servant.”
“Oh, that will soon pass off, Crampton.”