'Ye--es,' he said musingly as we turned aside into Wynyard Square. 'I
should think you'd do rather well at it. But, mind you, I fancy there
are bigger rewards to be won in business.'
'If there are, I don't want them,' I rejoined, with a warmth that
surprised myself.
'Ah! Well, there's only one way, you know, in journalism as in other
things. One must begin at the foundations, and work right through to
the roof. I'll tell you what; if you'd care to come on the
_Chronicle_--reporting, you know--I could give you a vacancy now.'
No doubt I showed the thrill this announcement gave me when I thanked
him for thinking of me.
'Oh, that's all right. There's no favour in it. I wouldn't offer it if
I didn't think you'd do full justice to it. And, mind you, there's
nothing tempting about it, financially at all events. I couldn't start
you at more than two or three pounds a week.'
Now here, despite my elation, I spoke with a shrewdness often
recalled, but rarely repeated by me in later life. A curious thing
that, in one so young, and evidence of one of the inconsistencies
about my development which I have noted before in this record.
'Oh, well,' I said, 'I should not, of course, like to lose money by
the change; but if you could give me three pounds a week I shouldn't
be losing, and I'd be delighted to come.'
It falls to be noted that I was earning two pounds ten shillings a
week from Messrs. J. Canning and Son at that time. I do not think
there was anything dishonest in what I said to Foster; but it
certainly indicated a kind of business sharpness which has been rather
noticeably lacking in my later life. The editor nodded ready
agreement, and it was in this way that I first entered upon
journalistic employment.