? ? ? ? " 'Wonderful!' he cried with his hands up. 'This quite fits in with all that I had heard. My boy, my boy, you are very much too good to be a clerk at Mawson's!'
? ? ? ? "This outburst rather astonished me, as you can think. 'Well,' said I, 'other people don't think quite so much of me as you seem to do, Mr. Pinner. I had a hard enough fight to get this berth, and I am very glad to have it.'
? ? ? ? " 'Pooh, man; you should soar above it. You are not in your true sphere. Now, I'll tell you how it stands with me. What I have to offer is little enough when measured by your ability, but when compared with Mawson's it's light to dark. Let me see. When do you go to Mawson's?'
? ? ? ? " 'On Monday.'
? ? ? ? " 'Ha, ha! I think I would risk a little sporting flutter that you don't go there at all.'
? ? ? ? " 'Not go to Mawson's'?'
? ? ? ? " 'No, sir. By that day you will be the business manager of the Franco-Midland Hardware Company, Limited, with a hundred and thirty-four branches in the towns and villages of France, not counting one in Brussels and one in San Remo.'
? ? ? ? "This took my breath away. 'I never heard of it.
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