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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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292 to his employer as he can, consistently with his own respectability, and without overstepping that line of duties which he undertakes to perform, and which the designation of his office is usually understood to imply.’ Mr Gregsbury looked fixedly at Nicholas for a short time, and then glancing warily round the room, said in a suppressed voice: ‘This is all very well, Mr--what is your name?’ ‘Nickleby.’ ‘This is all very well, Mr Nickleby, and very proper, so far as it goes--so far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. There are other duties, Mr Nickleby, which a secretary to a parliamentary gentleman must never lose sight of. I should require to be crammed, sir.’ ‘I beg your pardon,’ interposed Nicholas, doubtful whether he had heard aright. ‘--To be crammed, sir,’ repeated Mr Gregsbury. ‘May I beg your pardon again, if I inquire what you mean, sir?’ said Nicholas. ‘My meaning, sir, is perfectly plain,’ replied Mr Gregsbury with a solemn aspect. ‘My secretary would have to make himself master of the foreign policy of the world, as it is mirrored in the newspapers; to run his eye over all accounts of public meetings, all leading articles, and accounts of the proceedings of public bodies; and to make notes of anything which it appeared to him might be made a point of, in any little speech upon the question of some petition lying on the table, or anything of that kind. Do you understand?’ ‘I think I do, sir,’ replied Nicholas. ‘Then,’ said Mr Gregsbury, ‘it would be necessary for him to |
