How strangely fate had stepped with him.

What if there had not been that advertisement for a private secretary?
How then should he have gained a footing in this house?
Well, here he was, and speculation was of no value, save in a congratulatory sense.

The fly in the amber was the presence of the young American; Fitzgerald, shrewd and clever, might stumble upon something.

Well, till against that time! His room was pleasant, a corner which gave two excellent views, one of the sea and the other of the orchard.

There was no cluttering of furniture; it was simple, substantial, decently old.