elves to be honoured when he smiled upon them.
Little stories of his former days would often be told of him behind
his back; but they were not told with ill-nature, because he was
very constant in referring to the same matters himself. And it was
acknowledged by every one at the office, that neither the friendship
of the nobleman, nor that fact of the private secretaryship, nor the
acquisition of his wealth, had made him proud to his old companions
or forgetful of old friendships. To the young men, lads who had
lately been appointed, he was perhaps a little cold; but then it was
only reasonable to conceive that such a one as Mr. John Eames was now
could not be expected to make an intimate acquaintance with every
new clerk that might be brought into the office. Since competitive
examinations had come into vogue, there was no knowing who might
be introduced; and it was understood generally through the
establishment,--and I may almost say by the civil service at large,
so wide was his fame,--that Mr. Eames was very averse to the whole
theory of competition. The "Devil take the hindmost" scheme he called
it; and would then go on to explain that hindmost candidates were
often the best gentlemen, and that, in this way, the Devil got the
pick of the flock. And he was respected the more for this because it
was known that on this subject he had fought some hard battles with
the chief commissioner. The chief commissioner was a great believer
in competition, wrote papers about it, which he read aloud to various
bodies of the civil service,--not at all to their delight,--which he
got to be printed here and there, and which he sent by post all over
the kingdom. More than once this chief commissioner had told his
private secretary that they must part company, unless the private
secretary could see fit to alter his view, or could, at least, keep
his views to himself. But the private secretary would do neither;
and, nevertheless, there he was, still private secretary. "It's
because Johnny has got money," said one of the young clerks, who was
discussing this singular state of things with his brethren at the
office. "When a chap has got money, he may do what he likes. Johnny
has got lots of money, you know." The young clerk in question was
by no means on intimate terms with Mr. Eames, but there had grown up
in the office a way of calling him Johnny behind his back, which
had probably come down from the early days of his scrapes and his
p