'
'Who'll represent you there?''I shall look in now and then, of
course; there'll be a clerk, like at the old place.'
He talked of the matter in detail--of the doctors who would
attend, and of certain new arrangements to be tried.
'Have you engaged the clerk?' Reardon asked.
'Not yet. I think I know a man who'll suit me, though.'
'You wouldn't be disposed to give me the chance?'
Reardon spoke huskily, and ended with a broken laugh.
'You're rather above my figure nowadays, old man!' exclaimed
Carter, joining in what he considered the jest.
'Shall you pay a pound a week?'
'Twenty-five shillings. It'll have to be a man who can be trusted
to take money from the paying patients.'
'Well, I am serious. Will you give me the place?'
Carter gazed at him, and checked another laugh.
'What the deuce do you mean?'
'The fact is,' Reardon replied, 'I want variety of occupation. I
can't stick at writing for more than a month or two at a time.
It's because I have tried to do so that--well, practically, I
have broken down. If you will give me this clerkship, it will
relieve me from the necessity of perpetually writing novels; I
shall be better for it in every way.
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