and enterprise. 'That's a go-ahead fellow, Sey!' he remarked to me one day. 'Has the right sort of grit in him! Those Americans are the men. Wish I had a round hundred of them on my works in South Africa!'
That idea seemed to grow upon him. He was immensely taken with it. He had lately dismissed one of his chief superintendents at the Cloetedorp mine, and he seriously debated whether or not he should offer the post to the smart Kentuckian. For my own part, I am inclined to connect this fact with his expressed determination to visit his South African undertakings for three months yearly in future; and I am driven to suspect he felt life at Cloetedorp would be rendered much more tolerable by the agreeable society of a quaint and amusing American lady.
'If you offer it to him,' I said, 'remember, you must disclose your personality.'
'Not at all,' Charles answered. 'I can keep it dark for the present, till all is arranged for. I need only say I have interests in South Africa.'
So, one morning on deck, as we were approaching the Banks, he broached his scheme gently to the doctor and Mrs. Quackenboss. He remarked that he was connected with one of the biggest financial concerns in the Southern hemisphere; and that he would pay Elihu fifteen hundred a year to represent him at the diggings.
'What, dollars?' the lady said, smiling and
