"I'm going to make him my secretary, at twelve hundred a year, at first. He won't be worth it, and I'll have to do all my own work for a while; but I'll give him his chance. I won't pamper him. I'll test him out—and her, too. If they can't stand the test they wouldn't last long in the battle of matrimony."
"Your secretary?" said Forbes. "Does he know any law?"
"I'm not going to be a lawyer. I'm going to be a diplomat—in Paris."
"Splendid!" cried Forbes, reaching across to squeeze his hand. "I congratulate the country—and France. I envy you Paris. I've never been there."
"How would you like to go?"
"How should I like to be a major-general?"
Tait opened his lips to say something important, then stammered, and said instead:
"Waiter, give Captain Forbes some more of that curry. It's good here, isn't it?"
"Splendid," said Forbes, who had hardly touched what was on his plate.
Senator Tait shifted uncomfortably, made to speak, pursed his lips, eyed Forbes, and then said, with abrupt irrelevance: