"And meet all sorts of people? My Highness will not."
"In the country, then?"
"No, a big town—the bigger the better—some great manufacturing place, where every one has smuts on his face, money in his pocket, and is too busy improving machinery to have time to look at his neighbor."
"Would Brenthill do?"
"Admirably."
"I know a man there: I dare say he would as soon oblige me as not. What shall I say?"
"Say that I want employment as a clerk, and that, though I am utterly inexperienced, I write a good hand and am fairly intelligent. Don't say that I am active and obliging, for I'm neither. Tell him that if he can give me a fair trial it is all that you ask, and that he may turn me out at the end of a week if I don't do."
Godfrey nodded assent.
"I think you may as well write it now," said Percival. "I shall find it difficult to live for any length of time on this private fortune of mine without making inroads on my capital."
Hammond stretched himself and crossed the room to his writing-table. "Are you sure you won't change your mind?" he said. "It will be a horrible existence. Clerks receive very poor pay: I don't believe you can live on it."