lly
careless, not to say slovenly, in his dress. But now he was the very
pink of perfection. His jaunty frock-coat fitted him to perfection;
not a hair of his head was out of place; his waistcoat and
trousers were glossy and new, and his umbrella, which stood in the
umbrella-stand in the corner, was tight, and neat, and small, and
natty. "Well, John, you've become quite a great man," said his
brother.

"I don't know much about that," said John; "but I find that I have an
enormous deal of fagging to go through."

"Do you mean work? I thought you had about the easiest berth in the
whole Civil Service."

"Ah! that's just the mistake that people make. Because we don't cover
whole reams of foolscap paper at the rate of fifteen lines to a page,
and five words to a line, people think that we private secretaries
have got nothing to do. Look here," and he tossed over scornfully a
dozen or so of little notes. "I tell you what, Mark; it is no easy
matter to manage the patronage of a Cabinet minister. Now I am bound
to write to every one of these fellows a letter that will please him;
and yet I shall refuse to every one of them the request which he
asks."

"That must be difficult."

"Difficult is no word for it. But, after all, it consists chiefly
in the knack of the thing. One must have the wit 'from such a sharp
and waspish word as No to pluck the sting.' I do it every day, and I
really think that the people like it."

"Perhaps your refusals are better than other people's acquiescences."

"I don't mean that at all. We private secretaries have all to do the
same thing. Now, would you believe it? I have used up three lifts of
notepaper already in telling people that there is no vacancy for a
lobby messenger in the Petty Bag Office. Seven peeresses have asked
for it for their favourite footmen. But there--there's the Lord Petty
Bag!" A bell rang and the private secretary, jumping up from his
notepaper, tripped away quickly to the great man's room. "He'll
see you at once," said he, returning. "Buggins, show the Reverend
Mr. Robarts to the Lord Petty Bag." Buggins was the messenger for
whose not vacant place all the peeresses were striving with so much
animation. And then Mark, following Buggins for two steps, was
ushered into the next room.

If a man be altered by becoming a private secretary, he is much more
altered by being made a Cabinet minister. Robarts, as he entered the
room, could hardly believe that this was the