Part 9 (2/2)
”Very good. I want some one who will attend to the affairs honestly and painstakingly. There must be no idler about the house; and any young man . . .”
”Wouldn't an old one do?” suggested Killigrew.
”Whose set ideas would clash constantly with ours. And any young man we know would idle and look on the whole affair as a fine joke. I've had a talk with Webb. He's not a university man, but he's educated. I found him reading _Morte d'Arthur_.”
”Ah!”--from Crawford.
”He became a steward because he could find nothing else to do at the present time. He has been poor, and I dare say he has known the pinch of poverty. You said only this morning, dad, that he was the most attentive steward you had ever met on s.h.i.+pboard. Besides, there is a case in point. Our butler was a steward before you engaged him, six years ago.”
Killigrew began to smile. ”How much have you offered him as a salary?”
”Two hundred a month, to be paid out of the funds.”
”Janet,” said Crawford, ”it's a good thing I'm married, or I'd apply for the post myself.”
”All right,” agreed Killigrew; ”a bargain's a bargain.”
”A wager's a wager,” thought Kitty.
”If you wake up some fine morning and find the funds gone . . .”
”Mother and I will attend to all checks, such as they are.”
”Kitty, any day you say I'll take you into the firm as chief counsel.
But before I approve of your selection, I'd like to have a talk with our friend Webb.”
”He expects it. You are to see him on the main-deck at three this afternoon.”
”Molly, how long have we been married?”
”Thirty years, Daniel.”
”How old is Kitty?”
”Mother!”
”Twenty-two,” answered Mrs. Killigrew relentlessly.
”Well, I was going to say that I've learned more about the Killigrew family in these four months of travel than in all those years together.”
”Something more than ornaments,” suggested Kitty dryly.
”Yes, indeed,” replied her father amiably.
And when he returned to the boat-deck that afternoon for tea (which, by the way, he never drank, being a thorough-going coffee merchant), he said to Kitty: ”You win on points. If Webb doesn't pan out, why, we can discharge him. I'll take a chance at a man who isn't afraid to look you squarely in the eyes.”
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