“But the work has been badly done hitherto, I understand,” said Jane.  “It is not having too little to live on that makes a woman fit for such a situation as this.  Why do not they raise the salary and insist on higher qualifications?”

“I cannot tell why they do not, but so it is,” said Mr. Rennie.

“Is there any chance of rising from second to first matron?” asked Jane.  “That is worth 90 pounds, you say.”

“In the course of fifteen or twenty years, perhaps; but the duties are very distinct at present, and require different kinds of talent.”

“Yes,” said Jane; “and great interest with the directors might get a new person in, and fifteen or twenty years’ services would have less weight.  I do not feel inclined to work twenty years for 30 pounds even with a better chance of 90 pounds at last than is offered here.  It is at best a prison life, too; not the life I had hoped for, nor what I am best fitted for.  My cousin’s place is filled up here, I understand.”

“Every one below Mr. Ormistown has got a step, and we only want a junior clerk.  No doubt we will have plenty of applicants.”

“Will you take me?” said Jane.  “Do not shake your head, Mr. Rennie.  Cousin Francis, speak a word for me; I am quite fit for the situation.”

“If you could do anything to further Miss Melville’s views in any way you would lay me under a deep and lasting obligation, Mr. Rennie,” said Francis.  “I have most unconsciously done both of my cousins a great injury, which I am not allowed to repair.  My late father had as much confidence in this young lady’s talents and qualifications as he had in mine.  I know she is only too good for the situation she asks for.”

Mr. Rennie was disposed to try to please Mr. Hogarth.  He had always had a high opinion of him, and had great confidence in his judgment and integrity.  He was to take the chair at a dinner given to the whole bank staff by this man who had advanced all his subordinates one step, and left them pleased and hopeful; and he could make the usual complimentary speeches with more sincerity than is common at public dinners.  He had also introduced the new laird of Cross Hall to his wife and family on equal terms, and they had been very much pleased with him.  But when Miss Melville again gravely asked for the vacant clerkship, his habitual courtesy could scarcely prevent him from laughing outright.

“It would never do, my dear madam,” said he; “young ladies have quite a different sphere from that of ledgers and pass-books.”

“But I would do the work,” said Jane, opening a ponderous volume that lay on the manager’s table, and running up a column of figures with a rapidity and precision which he could not but admire.  Then on a piece of loose paper she wrote in a beautiful, clear, businesslike hand an entry as she would put it in the book, showing that she perfectly well understood the rationale of the Dr. and the Cr. side of the ledger; and then gravely turning to Mr. Rennie, she asked him why she would not do.