At last my turn came and I was ushered into the "sanctum." I had put my head only inside the door, when the bluff voice I had learned that day to know shouted merrily:
"Hello! George. What do you know? Come on in and sit down."
And there was Mr. Horsfal, as large as life, sitting behind a desk with a pile of letters in front of him.
I was keenly disappointed and I fear I showed it. Only this,—after all my rising hopes,—the genial Mr. Horsfal wished to chat with me now that he had got his business worries over.
"Why!—what's the matter, son? You look crestfallen."
"I am, too," I answered. "I was not aware which rooms you occupied and, when I received the telephone message to come here and saw those men waiting, I felt sure I had received an answer to my application for a position I saw in the papers this morning."
Mr. Horsfal leaned back in his chair and surveyed me.
"Well,—no need to get crestfallen, George. When you had that thought, your thinking apparatus was in perfect working order."
My eyes showed surprise. "You don't mean——"
"Yes! George."