Synopsis "Love And the Ironmonger"
The offices of Fairbrother and Co. were in the full swing of business when George Early sauntered in and took his accustomed place at a small desk. "What time do you call this?" asked the head clerk severely, looking up from a ledger. George looked at his watch. "Half-past eight," he said intelligently; "that makes me half an hour late, doesn't it? Matter of fact, old chap, I--" "That'll do," said the head clerk; "just you keep your place. And keep your time, too," he added warningly, "or else there'll be a vacancy in this office." He marched off with a ledger under his arm, and George, with a wink at his nearest colleague, pulled a morning paper from an inner pocket and consulted the sporting column. Fairbrothers' was an easy-going firm, that had the reputation of being good to its employees. If a man once got a seat on an office-stool there he was considered to have a berth for life, supposing of course that the iron trade and Upper Thames Street continued to exist. Fairbrothers' never dismissed a man unless he was a downright rogue, and in such a case it was believed that they secretly looked after him if he happened to be in a very bad way.
