“It is my aspiration to serve you in the capacity of a handy youth. Should you deem me worthy of your trust, it shall be my constant aim to render myself worthy of it.
“I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, your obedient and respectful servant,
“William Jordan (the younger).”
He showed this composition to his father, who approved it in silence. Then he stole out all alone into the darkness with an almost breathless secrecy and confided it to a letter-box in the street.
Such an adventure as this had the power to tantalize and excite him. When he sought the ancient authors as a refuge from the insurgency of his thoughts, his mind could no longer feel the spell of their magic pages.
“I pray that the postman will carry the letter to its true destination, my father,” he said anxiously.
“It is on the knees of the gods, Achilles,” said the white-haired man.
XIII
By an odd fatality the postman did carry the letter to its true destination, and on the evening of the following day his peculiar tap was heard at the letter-box on the door of the shop.
Pale with excitement, the boy rose from his book.