Part 11 (1/2)
”I have just looked through the books,” he said, ”and don't see anything good enough for you. Would you care to take anything else?”
”I don't quite know what else I could do,” said Katharine doubtfully.
She wanted to get away, and did not exactly know how to make a dignified exit.
”Book-keeping, for instance, or literary work? Have you ever tried being a secretary? Ah, I am sure you have! You are not the sort of young lady to lead the life of a humdrum governess, eh?”
”I was my father's secretary,” said Katharine. Mr. Parker was leaning across the table and playing with the pens in the ink-stand, so that his hand almost touched her elbow.
”Of course you were. So I was right about you, wasn't I? Don't you think that was very clever of me, now?”
He leaned a little nearer to her, and Katharine drew back instinctively and took her elbow off the table. He found the straight look of her eyes a little disconcerting, and left off playing with the penholders.
”Speaking seriously,” he said, donning an official air with alacrity, ”would you care to take a post as secretary?”
He had dropped his eyegla.s.s and his supercilious manner, and Katharine took courage.
”I should, immensely. But they are so hard to get.”
”Of course they are not easy to pick up, but in an agency like ours we often hear of something good. Let me see, would you like to go out to South Africa? Hardly, I should think.”
Katharine said she would not like to go out to South Africa; whereupon Mr. Parker offered New Zealand as an alternative.
”Your connection seems to lie princ.i.p.ally in other quarters of the globe,” Katharine felt obliged to remark; and in an unguarded moment she began to laugh at the absurdity of his suggestions. Mr. Parker at once ceased to look official, and laughed with her, and began playing with the pens in the inkstand again.
”Ah, now we understand each other better,” he said, resuming his familiar tone. ”What you want is a snug little berth with some literary boss, who won't give you too much to do, eh? A nice salary, and some one charming to play with; isn't that it?”
The sheer vulgarity of the man exposed the real nature of the situation to her. Her first impulse was to rush out of his sight, at any cost; but she restrained herself with an effort, and drew a sharp breath to gain time to collect her resources.
”I am afraid, Mr. Parker, that we don't understand each other at all,”
she said very slowly, trying to conceal the tremble in her voice; ”and as I don't feel inclined to emigrate, I think I had better--”
”Now, now, what a hurry you are in, to be sure!” interrupted Mr.
Parker, getting up and lounging round to her side of the table. ”You haven't even heard what I was going to say. I've been looking out for a secretary myself, for some time, 'pon my oath I have; but never, until this blessed moment, have I set eyes upon a young lady who suited me so well as you. Now, what do you say to that, eh?”
Katharine had risen, too, and was turning imperceptibly towards the door. She glanced contemptuously round the room, that was so entirely devoid of the ordinary apparatus of business, and she walked swiftly to the door and opened it, before he had time to prevent her.
”You are most kind,” she said sarcastically, emboldened by the presence of the office boy, ”but I feel that the work would be very much too hard for me. A large business like yours must need so much looking after! Good morning.”
Outside, while she was waiting for the lift, her composure completely deserted her, and she found she was trembling all over, and had to lean against the bal.u.s.ters for support.
”I knowed you wasn't the sort to go a-mixing of yourself up with that kidney,” observed the porter, who detected the tears in her eyes.
”Why didn't you tell me he was such a horrid man?” asked Katharine.
She was thoroughly unnerved, and even the porter's sympathy was better than none at all.
”It wasn't my business to hinterfere,” said the porter, who was merely curious and not sympathetic at all; and Katharine dried her eyes hastily, and tried to laugh.
”Of course it is n.o.body's business,” she said drearily, and gave him twopence for helping her to realise the fact. ”And I shouldn't have cried at all, if I had had any lunch,” she added vehemently to herself.