ricans in tolerant contempt.

It was as Kitty said: the real Englishman and the real American seldom
met.

He did not realize as yet that his position in this house was unique.
In England all great merchants and statesmen and nobles had one or more
private secretaries about. He believed it to be a matter of course
that Americans followed the same custom. He would have been
wonderfully astonished to learn that in all this mighty throbbing city
of millions--people and money--there might be less than a baker's dozen
who occupied simultaneously the positions of private secretary and
friend of the family. Mr. Killigrew had his private secretary, but
this gentleman rarely saw the inside of the Killigrew home; it wasn't
at all necessary that he should. Killigrew was a sensible man; his
business hours began when he left home and ended when he entered it.

"Do you know any earls or dukes?" asked Killigrew, folding his napkin.

"Really, no. I have moved in a very different orbit. I know many of
them by sight, however." He did not think it vital to add that he had
often sold them collars and suspenders.

The butler and the second man pulled back the ladies' chairs.
Killigrew hurried away to his offices; Kitty and her mother went
up-stairs; and Thomas returned to his desk in the library. He was
being watched by Kitty; nothing overt, nothing tangible, yet he sensed
it: from the first day he had entered this house. It oppressed him,
like a presage of disaster. Back of his chair was a fireplace, above
this, a mirror. Once--it was but yesterday--while with his back to his
desk, day-dreaming, he had seen her in the mirror. She stood in the
doorway, a hand resting lightly against the portiere. There was no
smile on her face. The moment he stirred, she vanished.

Watched. Why?

CHAPTER XI

The home-bureau of charities was a success from the start; but beyond
the fact that it served to establish Thomas Webb as private secretary
in the Killigrew family, I was not deeply interested. I know that
Thomas ran about a good deal, delving into tenements and pedigrees,
judging candidates, passing or condemning, and that he earned his
salary, munificent as it appeared to him. Forbes told me that he
wouldn't have done the work for a thousand a week; and Forbes, like
Panurge, had ten ways of making money and twelve ways of spending it.

The amazing characteristic about Thomas was his unaffected modesty, his
naturalness