1 '8 ANGEL PAVEMENT

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called here-Mr. Dersingham was talking things over
with me, in that room there. I'm telling you this in con-
fidence, mind. And Mr. Dersingham said the office ex-
penses were too big and somebody would have to go.
And it looked as if that somebody would be you/'

"Me!" Turgis's mouth, always open a little, was now
wide open, for his jaw suddenly dropped.

"You, Turgis," said Mr. Smeeth, with the satisfied air
of a man who has produced the desired effect. "It was
touch and go whether I told you that very day. I'm glad
I didn't because you might have got a fright for nothing.
Now it's all right, of course. We're busy, and we need
everybody. But when you want to start grumbling about
a bit of extra work, my boy, just you remember that.
You might have been looking for work now, and I'll bet
you wouldn't have liked that, would you?"

"No, I wouldn't, Mr. Smeeth/' replied Turgis,
humbly enough.

"And I don't blame you." Feeling fairly confident,
for once, about his own job, Mr, Smeeth had a great
desire to enlarge upon this topic, which had for him a
terrible fascination. ''Jobs aren't easy to get, are they?"

"Not if you haven't influence and you're not in the
know, Mr. Smeeth," said Turgis, who was a great believer
in the mysterious power of influence and being in the
know, and realised only too well that there were few
people in London who had less influence or were further
from the know than himself. "That's the trouble. I
seen it myself. You can't get a look in. I'd a packet-
my words, I'd a packet-before I got taken on here.
Trailin' round, queueing up, round again-oh dear!
You know what it's like."

"No, I don't," Mr. Smeeth returned sharply. •