Page 50 - Fairbrass

politely, and I thought rather foolishly, to

the gaily-dressed and highly-com pi exion ed
young ladies who stood behind it and served

them with different coloured drinks in dif­
ferent shaped glasses. This was, I discovered,
the ceremony known as “ an eleven o’clock.”

‘As luck would have it, the conversation
fell on your father, everyone wanting to

know how the young gentleman who wore
me got on in what he called his "new

berth.” He was very talkative, and as
another young clerk who was present, and

who seemed to have been formerly in your
father’s employ, approved of all that he

said, I suppose there is some truth in it.
‘And now, Fairbrass, I shall tell you as

nearly as I can, and in some of the odd
terms that I heard used, the things concern­

ing your father that were conveyed to me :
1 In the first place, everyone seemed to

like him. They callcd him a perfect gentle-
man” and a “ real good sort,” but they all

seemed agreed that the idea of his—without
any business training or experience,