There is stuff in you, senor, and you have a heart, which
is a good thing, for the blunders of a man with a heart often carry him
further than the cunning of the cynic; also you have a will and know how
to direct it.'
I bowed, and did my best to hold back my satisfaction at his words from
showing in my face.
'Still,' he went on, 'all this would not cause me to submit to you the
offer that I am about to make, for many a prettier fellow than yourself
is after all unlucky, or a fool at the bottom, or bad tempered and
destined to the dogs, as for aught I know you may be also. But I take
my chance of that because you suit me in another way. Perhaps you may
scarcely know it yourself, but you have beauty, senor, beauty of a very
rare and singular type, which half the ladies of Seville will praise
when they come to know you.'
'I am much flattered,' I said, 'but might I ask what all these
compliments may mean? To be brief, what is your offer?'
'To be brief then, it is this. I am in need of an assistant who must
possess all the qualities that I see in you, but most of all one which
I can only guess you to possess--discretion. That assistant would not
be ill-paid; this house would be at his disposal, and he would have
opportunities of learning the world such as are given to few. What say
you?'
'I say this, senor, that I should wish to know more of the business in
which I am expected to assist.
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