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Updated: May 21, 2025
After supper the Elder played a masterly game of croquet with Eldora, beating her with ease; then he wandered out to the barn and talked horses with the hired man, and finished by stripping off his coat and putting on one of Mrs. Buttles's aprons to help milk the cows.
Buttles's loftier task to entertain in their own tongues the unknown geniuses who flocked about the Hickses, and Nick could imagine how disconcerting his departure must be on the eve of their Grecian cruise which Mrs. Hicks would certainly call an Odyssey. The next moment the vision of Coral's hopeless suitor had faded, and Nick was once more spinning around on the wheel of his own woes.
But since he had accepted the post, his obvious duty was to fill it in accordance with his employers' requirements; and it was clear even to Eldorada and Mr. Beck that he had, as Eldorada ungrudgingly said, "Something of Mr. Buttles's marvellous social gifts." During the cruise his task had not been distasteful to him.
It was clear that he suffered horribly in imparting this information, though his compact face did not lend itself to any dramatic display of emotion. "Really," Nick smiled, and then ventured: "I hope it's not owing to conscientious objections to Tiepolo?" Mr. Buttles's blush became a smouldering agony. "Ah, Miss Hicks mentioned to you... told you...? No, Mr. Lansing.
My parents must absolutely have some one they can count on. You know what an easy place it is.... I think you would find the salary satisfactory." Nick drew a deep breath of relief. For a moment her eyes had looked as they had in the Scalzi and he liked the girl too much not to shrink from reawakening that look. But Mr. Buttles's place: why not? "Poor Buttles!" he murmured, to gain time.
"Oh," she said, "you won't find the same reasons as he did for throwing up the job. He was the martyr of his artistic convictions." He glanced at her sideways, wondering. After all she did not know of his meeting with Mr. Buttles in Genoa, nor of the latter's confidences; perhaps she did not even know of Mr. Buttles's hopeless passion. At any rate her face remained calm.
Hicks to her faithful followers; but Lansing had observed that, of late, the same skilled hand which had refashioned the Hickses' social circle usually managed to exclude from it the timid presences of the two secretaries. Their banishment was the more displeasing to Lansing from the fact that, for the last three months, he had filled Mr. Buttles's place, and was himself their salaried companion.
Her tone became more business-like. "I know it's hard to find almost impossible. But would you take it, I wonder, if it were offered to you ?" She turned her head slightly, and their eyes met. For an instant blank terror loomed upon him; but before he had time to face it she continued, in the same untroubled voice: "Mr. Buttles's place, I mean.
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