"It's not often that I do use words of that kind, but, asking your pardon, this time I mean it."
"But--I don't understand what you do mean. You can't mean that Mr. Hooper would engage me as his secretary merely because I happened to be wearing my prettiest frock?"
"I don't say anything of the kind; not at all. I don't know that he wants a secretary; I only know he told me to ask you to call. You want to make a good impression when you do call, don't you?"
"Of course I do."
"Exactly; of course you do! What I say is don't leave anything undone which will help you to make a good impression; and that's all I do say."
When Mr. Gibb went Nora was left blushing, trembling, excited, and slightly bewildered; she continued her meal without having any clear idea of what it was that she was eating.
"That's a queer boy," she said to herself, more than once.
Mr. Gibb was a queer boy; which was why his "chief" occasionally alluded to him as King Solomon.