But to Milly Neal the subject of the Certina factory admitted of no jocularity. She took him under advisement with a grave and quaint dubiety.
"Have you ever worked?"
"Oh, yes; I'm not wholly a loafer."
"For a living, I mean."
"Unfortunately I've never had to."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-five."
"I don't believe I'd want you in my department, if it was up to me," she pronounced.
"Do you think I wouldn't be amenable to your stern discipline?"
Still she refused to meet him on his ground of badinage. "It isn't that. But I don't think you'd be interested enough to start in at the bottom and work up."