All right!--ask Mr.Lindsey to step in to me, and we'll put the matter on a business footing." Mr.Lindsey came in and took over the job of settling matters on my behalf.

And the affair was quickly arranged.

I was to stay with Mr.
Lindsey another month, so as to give him the opportunity of getting a new head clerk, then I was to enter on my new duties at Hathercleugh.

I was to have five hundred pounds a year salary, with six months' notice on either side; at the end of five years, if I was still in the situation, the terms were to be revised with a view to an increase--and all this was to be duly set down in black and white.

These propositions, of course, were Mr.Lindsey's, and Sir Gilbert assented to all of them readily and promptly.