..." Penny was overwhelmed. "This is marvelous. You're too kind. I don't know how to thank you..." "Don't try, my dear little Penny. You'll allow me to use your Christian name, won't you? Besides, I count on your being friends with my wife, who is alone a great deal. Now, if you start tomorrow, that gives you all today to prepare your affairs, and tomorrow morning. I shall come and collect you at your hotel in the car. Then you will settle in here. Does that suit you?" "Oh yes," cried Penny, radiant. "But Victor, darling," the interruption came from the lawyer's wife. "You forgot to warn Penny about the condition." Penny's heart sank at these words; so there was a condition; she should have realized as much. It had been too good to be true, and she probably wouldn't be able to fulfil the condition. She hung her head in despair and missed the significant look exchanged by the other two. "True, very true," said Mr. Jennings. "I don't quite know how to explain it. Let's see... Miss Penny, I'm sure you'd be a perfect secretary, but even so, I'd expect you to make mistakes from time to time." "My husband is very fussy about that," added Carola with a smile. "I have good reasons for knowing it." "As I was saying," the lawyer went on, "you will probably make some mistakes. Now in some firms each mistake earns a black mark and a warning, until finally the person gets the sack. But my methods are different, I think it is unkind to sack a young girl who is, after all, doing her best. I find it more natural, to inflict a corrective punishment for each offense. Don't you agree with me?" "Ye... yes sir," murmured Penny, who really didn't see what he was driving at. "Secretaries are generally women. What, then, does a man do when he wants to punish a woman?" "I don't know, sir. |