In her complacency she said: "So far, very well, Mr. Fleet. I congratulate myself that I have you to assist me, instead of that awkward fraud, Mr. Berder." "And I assure you, Miss Ludolph, that I have longed intensely for this privilege ever since I knew your purpose." "You may have cause to repent, like many another whose wishes have been gratified; for your privilege will involve a great deal of hard work." "The more the better," said Dennis, warmly. "How so? I should think you had more to do now than you would care about." "Work is no burden to one of my years and strength, provided it is suited to one's tastes. Moreover, I confess that I hope to derive great advantages from this labor." "In what way?" she asked, with a slight frown, imagining that he thought of extra pay. "Because unconsciously you will give me instruction, and I hope that you are not unwilling that I should gain such hints and suggestions as I can from the display of your taste that I must witness." "Not at all," said she, laughing. "I see that you are ambitious to learn your business and rise in the store." "I am ambitious to gain a knowledge of one of the noblest callings." "What is that?" "Art." "What!" said she, with a half-scornful smile; "are you a disciple of art?" "Yes; why not?" "Well, I do not wish to hurt your feelings, but, to tell you the honest truth, it seems but the other day that you were Pat Murphy." "But am I a Pat Murphy?" he asked, with gentle dignity. "No, Mr. Fleet; I will do you the justice to say that I think you very much above your station." "I am sufficiently a democrat, Miss Ludolph, to believe that a man can be a man in any honest work." "And I, Mr. Fleet, am not in the least degree a democrat." Which fact she proceeded to prove by ordering him about for the next hour like the most absolute little despot that ever queened it over a servile province in the dark ages. Bat it was rather difficult to keep up this style of dictatorship with Dennis. He seemed so intelligent and polite that she often had it to her tongue to ask his opinion on certain points. Toward the last she did so, and the opinion he gave, she admitted to herself, was judicious; but for a purpose of her own she disregarded it, and took a different way.