"If you care to go and put any part of the machinery out of order, I will undertake to put it right again; and after that I could take you for a run in the car."
This sounded direct and business-like, and pleased the captain, and, incidentally, the captain's daughter.
"Well, that's fair enough. Go and have something to eat now, and after that you can take Miss Lottingar and myself for a spin. By the way, what's your name?"
"John Armstrong—sir!" said Pip. (He was always forgetting that word.)
"Have you any references?"
"No."
"Could you get any?"
"I might, but I'd rather not."
The captain regarded this blunt young man curiously. He possessed no references himself, and he moved in a class of society where such things were regarded with pious horror. Pip rather attracted him.
"Never mind them at present," he said, ringing the bell. "If you can handle the car you will suit me. If you can't, you are worth nothing, and you'll get nothing. Would you be willing to do odd jobs as well?"