that
never again could the bogies and false gods of society rule me. I was
free! I was independent! I was unafraid! I turned confident eyes back to
Mrs. Sewall. She was considering me sharply, interrogatively, tapping an
arm of her chair as she sat thinking.

"Well," I said smiling, and stood up as if to go. "If you are through
with me----"

"Wait a minute," she interrupted. "Wait a minute. I am not through. Be
seated again, please. I sent out about thirty copies of the papers such
as you received," she went on. "Some fifteen replies were sent back.
Yours proved to be the only possible one among them. That is why I have
summoned you here today. The position of my private secretary is a
peculiar one, and difficult to fill. Miss Armstrong has been with me
some years. She leaves to be married." (Married! This sallow creature.)
"She leaves to marry an officer in England. She is obliged to sail
tomorrow. Some one to take her place had been engaged, but a death--a
sudden death--makes it impossible for the other young lady to keep her
contract with me. Now the season is well advanced. I am returning to
town late this year. My town house is being prepared for immediate
occupancy. The servants are there now. I return to it tomorrow. On
Thursday I have a large dinner. My social calendar for the month is very
full. You are young--frightfully young--to fill a position of such
responsibility as Miss Armstrong's. My private secretary takes care of
practically all my correspondence. But many of the letters I asked you
to write in the test I sent are letters which actually must be written
within the next few days. Your answers pleased me, Miss Vars--yes,
pleased me very much, I might say." She got up (I rising too) and
procured a fresh handkerchief from a silver box on a table. She touched
it, folded, to her nose.

"The salary to begin with is to be a hundred and twenty-five dollars a
month," she remarked. She shook out the handkerchief, then she added,
coughing slightly first behind the sheer square of linen, "I should like
you to start in upon your duties, Miss Vars, as soon as
possible--tomorrow morning if it can be arranged."

I was taken unawares. I had not expected this.

"Why--but do you think--I'm sorry," I stumbled, "but on further
consideration I feel that I----"

"Wait a minute, please. Before you give me an answer it is fair to
explain your position more in detail. It is an official position. Your
hours are from ten