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‘Are you quite sure?’
‘Well, the fact is they’re advertising for a shop-walker to-
morrow,’ said Athelny, looking at him doubtfully through
his glasses.
‘D’you think I stand any chance of getting it?’
Athelny was a little confused; he had led Philip to expect
something much more splendid; on the other hand he was
too poor to go on providing him indefinitely with board
and lodging.
‘You might take it while you wait for something better.
You always stand a better chance if you’re engaged by the
firm already.’
‘I’m not proud, you, know’ smiled Philip.
‘If you decide on that you must be there at a quarter to
nine tomorrow morning.’
Notwithstanding the war there was evidently much diffi-
culty in finding work, for when Philip went to the shop many
men were waiting already. He recognised some whom he
had seen in his own searching, and there was one whom he
had noticed lying about the park in the afternoon. To Philip
now that suggested that he was as homeless as himself and
passed the night out of doors. The men were of all sorts, old
and young, tall and short; but every one had tried to make
himself smart for the interview with the manager: they had
carefully brushed hair and scrupulously clean hands. They
waited in a passage which Philip learnt afterwards led up to
the dining-hall and the work rooms; it was broken every few
yards by five or six steps. Though there was electric light in
the shop here was only gas, with wire cages over it for pro-