CHAPTER XI 



THE GROOM COTltiflued 



ILLING servants are a 

 "real blessing" to 

 masters, as the soothing 

 syrup people advertize. 

 Willingness covers a 

 multitude of sins, and 

 saves many a graceless 

 dog his place. Willing- 

 ness, however, is a thing 

 confined almost entirely 

 to small establishments. 

 Let a servant be ever 

 so well disposed that way, when he gets into a large 

 establishment, he is obliged to conform to the rules 

 and ordinances of the place, and do nothing that 

 can by any possibility be considered the work of 

 another, or that the odd boy about the place can 

 be made to do. Idleness is looked upon as a 

 sacred right, a right that each new comer is bound 

 to preserve inviolate, and transmit to his successor 

 perfect and unimpaired. The true dignity and duties 

 of servitude are only properly appreciated and per- 

 fectly understood in large houses. Whoever got his 

 hat brushed at a duke's? 



" Willingness " of course includes pleasantness of 

 manner ; for it is hardly possible for a fellow who 



