hole bank
staff by this man who had advanced all his subordinates one step, and
left them pleased and hopeful; and he could make the usual
complimentary speeches with more sincerity than is common at public
dinners. He had also introduced the new laird of Cross Hall to his wife
and family on equal terms, and they had been very much pleased with
him. But when Miss Melville again gravely asked for the vacant
clerkship, his habitual courtesy could scarcely prevent him from
laughing outright.

"It would never do, my dear madam," said he; "young ladies have quite a
different sphere from that of ledgers and pass-books."

"But I would do the work," said Jane, opening a ponderous volume that
lay on the manager's table, and running up a column of figures with a
rapidity and precision which he could not but admire. Then on a piece
of loose paper she wrote in a beautiful, clear, businesslike hand an
entry as she would put it in the book, showing that she perfectly well
understood the RATIONALE of the Dr. and the Cr. side of the ledger; and
then gravely turning to Mr. Rennie, she asked him why she would not do.

"It is not the custom, my dear young lady; I can get young men in
plenty who want the place."

"I have no doubt that you can, but I want it too; and, in consideration
of the prejudice against my sex, I will take the place, and accept the
salary you would give to a raw lad of sixteen, though I am an educated
and experienced woman of twenty-three. I want something that I can rise
by. I could be satisfied with the career of my cousin, without the
fortune at the end. Young women in Paris are clerks and bookkeepers;
why should they not be so here?"

"France is not Scotland, or Auld Reekie Paris. We consider our customs
very much better than the French. Why, you know quite well it would
never do. You would turn the heads of all my clerks, and make them idle
away their time and neglect their work. You do not see the danger of
the thing."

"No, I do not," answered Jane. "Do I look like a person who would turn
any man's head? If I do such mischief, turn me off; but I ask, in the
name of common sense and common justice, a fair trial. If I do not give
satisfaction I will stand the consequences."

The serious earnestness with which Jane pleaded for so strange an
employment--the matter-of-fact way in which she stood upon her
capabilities, without regarding suitabilities--impressed Francis
Hogarth while it embarrassed Mr. Rennie