"TAKE CARE OF THE BUTTER" 



sent us a present of butter. I said I hoped it 

 was not a veiled attempt to bribe the secretary, 

 as, if the dictum, often wrongly ascribed to 

 Walpole, that " every man has his price " were 

 correct, I must have something better than butter. 

 I then went to the office, and began dealing with 

 the morning's correspondence. When I had got 

 half-way through my directions with respect to 

 the way in which the dairymaid should be handled 

 a sudden thought flashed through my *brain ; 

 and, instead of continuing to dictate something 

 suitable to the situation she had created, I 

 dispatched a hasty note to the partner of my life, 

 begging her to take the utmost care of that butter, 

 and to do nothing with it till I came home for 

 lunch. There was just the fear in my mind it 

 might be given away or otherwise disposed of 

 before I could investigate it. However, it was 

 preserved intact for my inspection, and a careful 

 disintegration of its innermost parts revealed 

 various coins, amounting in all to five-and- 

 twenty shillings, dispersed about the oleaginous 

 mass. The young lady, either from a love of 

 mystery, or a desire to save the cost of a postal 

 order, had adopted this singular, but somewhat 

 risky, method of conveying her fees to the proper 

 quarter. It seems worthy of record as an example 

 of misplaced ingenuity. 



267 



