United States or Fiji ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


She ought to have arrived that afternoon. When at last she got on to the right number, she was answered by the husband of the landlady, an ex-butler, and an admirable maître de cuisine. "Has Mrs. Ireton arrived yet?" Margaret asked. "Yes, she arrived at five o'clock. Who shall I say speaking?" "Ask her if she can speak to Miss Lampton, please, for a few minutes.

'Then that was the secret! exclaimed Mrs. Rollstone. 'Well, I'll not blame you, child, but you might have told us. Secrets were safe with the ex-butler, but not quite so much so with his wife, though all three tried to impress on her the need of silence, before Mr. Deyncourt hastened out to rejoin Lord Northmoor.

So far as my memory serves me, there were no other pictures in this exclusive hostelry; and I was not surprised to learn that the landlord was an ex-butler, the landlady an ex-lady's-maid, from the great house; and that the bar-parlour was a sort of perquisite of former servants.

The man nodded affirmatively. Five minutes later he was ready to depart, and stood before the ex-butler a well-dressed, intellectual, but very debauched-looking gentleman.

I haven't my old cellar to select from, but I can recommend the brands you see on the table. Mr. Furneaux, I'm sure you have not forgotten that Château Yquem?" Then, and not until then, did the ex-butler hear that the detectives had never tasted his famous port. His benign features were wrung with pain, for it was a wine of rare "bowket," and hard to replace.

And then the miracle came. Prichard, the ex-butler who valeted all the young gentlemen in the house where Philip had taken chambers, brought him his breakfast. As he placed the eggs and muffins on the tables to Philip it seemed as though Prichard had said: "I am sorry he is leaving us. The next gentleman who takes these rooms may not be so open-handed. He never locked up his cigars or his whiskey.

The ex-butler waited waited quite a long time, not only until Mr. Sleuth had let himself into the house, but till the lodger had had time to get well away, upstairs. Then he also walked up the flagged pathway, and put his latchkey in the door. He lingered as long over the job of hanging his hat and coat up in the hall as he dared, in fact till his wife called out to him.

"He was always fond of his jest," commented Mrs. Higgs. "That he were," observed her lord. But it was after he went into the diplomatic service that the real trouble began. "It seems, sir, that he went the pace extraordinary," said the ex-butler, with a solemn gusto. "His debts were somethink awful," said the lady's-maid. "And as nice a young gentleman all the time as you would wish to see!"

This gift, which had been accompanied by a few kind words, had gone to Bunting's heart. It had confirmed him in his Conservative principles; only gentlefolk ever behaved in that way; quiet, old-fashioned, respectable, gentlefolk, the sort of people of whom those nasty Radicals know nothing and care less! But the ex-butler was not as happy as he should have been.

But one must be used to high society to know how such things should be relished! 'Are Lord Northmoor's moors extensive? asked Mr. Rollstone. 'There's about four or five miles of them, responded Herbert; 'and these grouse are awfully shy. 'Ah, the Earl of Blackwing owns full twenty miles of heather, said the ex-butler.