id.

She sat very still, considering him. Within her, subtle currents
seemed to be contending once more, disturbing her equanimity. She
said, sweetly:

"I am not as offended as I ought to be. But I do not see why you
should disregard convention with me."

"I didn't mean it that way," he said, leaning forward. "I couldn't
stand not seeing you. That was all. Convention is a pitiful
thing--sometimes--" He hesitated, then fell to studying the carpet.

She looked at him, silent in her uncertainty. His expression was
grave, almost absent-minded. And again her troubled eyes rested on
the disturbing symmetry of feature and figure in all the
unconscious grace of repose; and in his immobility there seemed
something even of nobility about him which she had not before
noticed.

She stole another glance at him. He remained very still, leaning
forward, apparently quite oblivious of her. Then he came to
himself with a quick smile, which she recognised as characteristic
of all that disturbed her about this man--a smile in which there
was humour, a little malice and self-sufficiency and--many, many
things she did not try to analyse.

"Don't you really want an unreliable servant?" he asked.

His perverse humour perplexed her, but she smiled.

"Don't you remember that I once asked you if you needed an
able-bodied man?" he insisted.

She nodded.

"Well, I'm that man."

She assented, smiling conventionally, not at all understanding. He
laughed, too, thoroughly enjoying something.

"It isn't really very funny," he said, "Ask your brother-in-law. I
had an interview with him before I came here. And I think there's
a chance that he may give me a desk and a small salary in his
office."

"How absurd!" she said.

"It is rather absurd. I'm so absolutely useless. It's only
because of the relationship that Mr. Craig is doing this."

She said uneasily: "You are not really serious, are you?"

"Grimly serious."

"About a--a desk and a salary--in my brother-in-law's office?"

"Unless you'll hire me as a useful man. Otherwise, I hope for a
big desk and a small salary. I went to Mr. Craig this morning, and
the minute I saw him I knew he was fine enough to be your
brother-in-law. And I said, 'I am Philip Ormond Berkley; how do
you do!' And he said, 'How do you do!' And I said, 'I'm a
relation,' and he said, 'I believe so.' And I said, 'I was
educated at Harvard and in Leipsic; I am full of useless
accomplishme