Page:The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman.djvu/249

 honestly is only a suburb of Monte Carlo. The opportunity was too good to be thrown away; and it was worth enduring a little discomfort if by shewing him some slight civility I could enlist his support. It was not so easy as I had hoped. He wanted to make me believe that the best positions in the business were reserved for men who had worked their way up from the bottom, as he had done; that there was an immense deal to be learned, that the most responsible part of his duties consisted in choosing the right men. . . “But,” I said, “I am in a position to speak with knowledge here; it is my own son whom I am putting forward.” “I shall be delighted to see him,” answered Sir Appleton, “and to talk things over again on my return to London.” And really he wanted to leave it like that, but I am not quite so easily discouraged. I hammered away until I had extracted a definite promise that he would find some position in which Will could support himself, though I am afraid he was not very gracious about it. . . “If I accept him in the dark,” he said in conclusion, “don’t blame me for discharging him after a month if I find he’s no good.” “I have no fear of that,” I said. “Discharge” was hardly the word I should