the master. "I want to know if you have any
complaint to make of James."

"Complaint, sir? No, sir."

"Is he industrious at his work and respectful to you?"

"Yes, sir, always."

"You never find he slights his work when your back is turned?"

"Never, sir."

"That's well; but I must put another question. Have you no reason to
suspect, when he goes out with the horses to exercise them or to take a
message, that he stops about talking to his acquaintances, or goes into
houses where he has no business, leaving the horses outside?"

"No, sir, certainly not; and if anybody has been saying that about
James, I don't believe it, and I don't mean to believe it unless I have
it fairly proved before witnesses; it's not for me to say who has been
trying to take away James' character, but I will say this, sir, that a
steadier, pleasanter, honester, smarter young fellow I never had in this
stable. I can trust his word and I can trust his work; he is gentle and
clever with the horses, and I would rather have them in charge with him
than with half the young fellows I know of in laced hats and liveries;
and whoever wants a character of James Howard," said John, with a
decided jerk of his head, "let them come to John Manly."

The master stood all this time grave and attentive, but as John finished
his speech a broad smile spread over his face, and looking kindly
across at James, who all this time had stood still at the door, he said,
"James, my lad, set down the oats and come here; I am very glad to find
that John's opinion of your character agrees so exactly with my own.
John is a cautious man," he said, with a droll smile, "and it is not
always easy to get his opinion about people, so I thought if I beat the
bush on this side the birds would fly out, and I should learn what I
wanted to know quickly; so now we will come to business. I have a letter
from my brother-in-law, Sir Clifford Williams, of Clifford Hall.
He wants me to find him a trustworthy young groom, about twenty or
twenty-one, who knows his business. His old coachman, who has lived with
him thirty years, is getting feeble, and he wants a man to work with him
and get into his ways, who would be able, when the old man was pensioned
off, to step into his place. He would have eighteen shillings a week at
first, a stable suit, a driving suit, a bedroom over the coachhouse, and
a boy under him. Sir Clifford is a good master, and if you could get the
place it would be a go