CHAPTER XI 



THE GROOM CONTINUED 



ILLING servants are a " real 

 blessing " to masters, as 

 the soothing sjTup people 

 advertise. Willingness co- 

 vers a multitude of sins, 

 and saves many a graceless 

 dog his place. Willingness, 

 however, is a thing con- 

 fined 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 perfectly understood in large 

 houses. Whoever got his hat brushed at a duke's ? 



"Willingness" of course includes pleasantness of manner; 



