aughed good-humouredly.--"You've a pretty good opinion of yourself
at any rate, Master Frank, if that's any recommendation:--you will never
fail through want of impudence. But, I'll speak to the vicar about
this. I think he could get you a nomination for a Government office."

"What, a clerkship?"--I said, ruefully, having hitherto affected to
despise all the race of her Majesty's quill drivers, from Horner
downwards.

"Yes, sir,"--she said,--"`a clerkship;' and a very good thing, too! You
need not turn up your nose at it, Master Frank; _I_ can see you,
although I _do_ wear glasses! Grander men than you think yourself, sir,
have not despised such an opening! Here _is_ the vicar,"--she added, as
her brother walked into the room.--"How lucky! we can ask him now."

The vicar overheard her remark.

"Hullo, Frank!" said he; "what is it, that Sally and you are conspiring
together? Can I do anything for you, my boy?"--he continued, in his
nice kind way,--"if so, only ask me; and if it is in my power, you know
that I will do it."

"He wishes to get into a Government office; don't you think you could
help him?" said Miss Pimpernell.

"You want to be in harness, my boy, eh?"--said the vicar, turning to
me.--"That's right, Frank. Literature will come on, in due course, all
in good time. There's nothing like having regular work to do, however
trifling. It not only gives you a daily object in life, but also
steadies your mind, causing you better to appreciate higher intellectual
employment! I thought, however, my boy, that you looked down on `Her
Majesty's hard bargains,' as poor Government clerks are somewhat
unjustly termed?"

"That was, because I thought they were a pack of idlers, doing nothing,
and earning a menial salary for it. `Playing from ten to to four, like
the fountains in Trafalgar Square,' as _Punch_ declares," I said.

"Ah!" said the vicar, "that is a mistake, as you will soon find out when
you belong to their body. They _do_ work, and well, too. Many of the
grand things on which departmental ministers pride themselves--and get
the credit, too, of effecting by their own unaided efforts--are really
achieved by the plodding office hacks, who work on unrecognised in our
midst! Our whole public service is a blunder, my boy. There is no
effective rise given in it to talent or merit, as is the case in other
official circles. The `big men,' who are appointed for political
purposes, get on, it is tru