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Words: 27418 in 11 pages
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--Jessie from whom his Majesty at the White House hides when he knows she's coming for an impossible favor--she was no match for Jessie and she knew it. She wiped the sweat from her face and stammered: "I hope we'll suit each other, Miss--" In her embarrassment she had forgotten my name.
Mrs. Burke brightened. "The Senator won't be here to-day," she drawled, in a tone which always suggests to me that, after all, life is a smooth, leisurely matter with plenty of time for everything except work. "As he was leaving for the Capitol this morning, he says to me, says he: 'You women had better fight it out alone.'"
Jessie saved the luncheon--or, at least, thought she was saving it. Mrs. Burke and I had only to listen and eat. I caught her looking at me several times, and then I saw shrewdness in her eyes--good-natured, but none the less penetrating for that. And I knew I should like her, and should get on with her. At last our eyes met and we both smiled. After that she somehow seemed less crowded and foreign in her tight, fine clothes. I saw she was impatient for Jessie to go the moment luncheon was over, but it was nearly three o'clock before we were left alone together. There fell an embarrassed silence--for both of us were painfully conscious that nothing had really been settled.
"When do you wish me to come--if you do wish it at all?" I asked, by way of making a beginning.
"When do you think you could come?" she inquired nervously.
"Then you do wish to give me a trial? I hope you won't feel that Mrs. Carteret's precipitate way binds you."
She gave me a shrewd, good-natured look. "I want you to come," she said. "I wanted it from what I'd heard of you--I and Mr. Burke. I want it more than ever, now that I've seen you. When can you come?"
"To-morrow--to-morrow morning?"
"Come as early as you like. The salary is--is satisfactory?"
"Mrs. Carteret said--but I'm sure--you can judge better--whatever--" I stuttered, red as fire.
Mrs. Burke laughed. "I can see you ain't a great hand at business. The salary is two thousand a year, with a three months' vacation in the time we're not at Washington. Always have a plain understanding in money matters--it saves a lot of mean feelings and quarrels."
"Very well--whatever you think. I don't believe I'm worth much of anything until I've had a chance to show what I can do."
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