“That is what I wish to do,” said Lance, taking the paper and bowing as he left the room.
He had plenty of work during the morning. Mr Brown asked him to come out and take a chop with him at one o’clock.
The head clerk was never long absent from the office, as he might be wanted, and he made it a rule never to keep clients waiting longer than he could help.
“Time is money, my young friend,” he observed. “We should never squander other people’s time more than our own.”
Lance worked hard till his uncle arrived just at the usual hour for closing the office. Mr Gaisford had gone away some time before.
“He has done very well, sir,” observed Mr Brown as Mr Durrant entered; “and what is more, I feel sure he will do as well every day he is here.”
He and his uncle walked home together. Mr Durrant told him that his employer promised to give him a salary at once should the head clerk make a favourable report of him.
“That he will do that, I am confident, from what he has said.”
Lance felt very happy, and wrote home in good spirits, giving a satisfactory account of the commencement of his career in London.
He generally accompanied his uncle to and from the office, but he soon learned to find the way by himself. He always went directly there and back, refraining from wandering elsewhere to see the great city which to him was still an unknown land. He was very happy in his new home, and on his return each day he was greeted by his young cousins with shouts of pleasure. Lance was never tired of trying to amuse them.