“I will agree to fifteen,” said Tom.
“Then, my young friend, we will confer together again. I may be able to see my friend this evening and arrange matters. Suppose you meet me in this place to-morrow, say at ten o’clock in the forenoon.”
“All right, sir.”
The young man arose, and left the hotel.
Tom was quite elated at the thought that he was likely to make so profitable an engagement.
“Fifteen to twenty dollars a week!” he said to himself. “That will be lucky and no mistake! It’s rather an improvement on three dollars a week. I hope I sha’n’t lose the place from having no recommendations. If they will only wait I am sure Mr. Julian would send me one.”
It never occurred to Tom that the stranger who proposed to employ him might stand in greater need of a recommendation, and might find it considerably more difficult to obtain one.
CHAPTER XXI.
TOM’S NEW EMPLOYER.
AS YET Tom did not know the name of the man from whom he hoped for an engagement. He afterward learned that he went by the name of Percy Burnett.