Can it be
managed?"
"Oh, I want to talk to you about that," she said.
"Well, go on," he said, as she hesitated.
"I am so afraid of hurting your feelings, Frank," she said with a
singular timidity.
"My feelings are probably tougher than you think," he returned.
"You will think so badly of me," she said. "You will be
affronted."
"It sounds as though you wanted to engage me for your butler," he
said. Then, as she still withheld the words on her lips, he went
on: "Don't be uneasy about saying it, Florence. If it's
impossible--why, that's the end of it, of course, and no harm
done."
"I want you to come," she said simply.
"Then, what's the trouble?" he demanded, getting more and more
mystified. "I don't mind being an artificer the least bit. I like
to work with my hands. I'm a good mechanic, and I like it."
"I want you for my chief engineer," she said.
This was news, indeed. Frank's face betrayed his keen pleasure. He
had never soared to the heights of asking or expecting THAT.
"I had to dismiss the last one," she went on. "That's the reason
why I'm still here, and not two days out, as I had expected. He
locked himself in his cabin and shot at people through the door,
and told awful lies to the newspapers."
"If it's anything about my qualifications," he said, thinking he
had found the reason of her backwardness, "I don't fancy I'll have
any trouble to satisfy you. I don't want to toot my own horn,
Florence, but really, you know, I am rated a first-class man.
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