lord of
all. But these things were done in the mild days, before Sir Raffle
Buffle came to the Board.

There had been some fun in this at first; but of late John Eames had
become tired of it. He disliked Mr Kissing, and the big book out
of which Mr Kissing was always endeavouring to convict him of some
official sin, and had got tired of that joke setting Kissing and Love
by the ears together. When the Assistant Secretary first suggested
to him that Sir Raffle had an idea of selecting him as private
secretary, and when he remembered the cosy little room, all carpeted,
with a leathern arm-chair and a separate washing-stand, which in such
case would be devoted to his use, and remembered also that he would
be put into receipt of an additional hundred a year, and would stand
in the way of still better promotion, he was overjoyed. But there
were certain drawbacks. The present private secretary,--who had been
private secretary also to the late First Commissioner,--was giving
up his Elysium because he could not endure the tones of Sir Raffle's
voice. It was understood that Sir Raffle required rather more of a
private secretary, in the way of obsequious attendance, than was
desirable, and Eames almost doubted his own fitness for the place.

"And why should he choose me?" he had asked the Assistant Secretary.

"Well, we have talked it over together, and I think that he prefers
you to any other that has been named."

"But he was so very hard upon me about the affair at the railway
station."

"I think he has heard more about that since; I think that some
message has reached him from your friend, Earl De Guest."

"Oh, indeed!" said Johnny, beginning to comprehend what it was to
have an earl for his friend. Since his acquaintance with the nobleman
had commenced, he had studiously avoided all mention of the earl's
name at his office; and yet he received almost daily intimation that
the fact was well known there, and not a little considered.

"But he is so very rough," said Johnny.

"You can put up with that," said his friend the Assistant Secretary.
"His bark is worse than his bite, as you know, and then a hundred a
year is worth having." Eames was at that moment inclined to take a
gloomy view of life in general, and was disposed to refuse the place,
should it be offered to him. He had not then received the earl's
letter; but now, as he sat with that letter open before him, lying
in the drawer beneath his desk so that he co