r of them taken to his own place and fitted
up in the conservatory. They were a little too large, so they had to
be narrowed before they were fixed.

The sequel was rather interesting, for it happened that when the
gentleman attempted to take the roller blinds from his old house, the
person to whom he had sold it refused to allow them to be removed;
claiming that when he bought the house, he bought the blinds also.
There was a little dispute, but eventually it was settled that way and
the gentleman decided that he would have the venetian blinds in his new
house after all, and instructed the people who moved his furniture to
take the venetians down again from under the roof, and refix them, and
then, of course, it was discovered that four of the blinds were
missing. Mr Rushton was sent for, and he said that he couldn't
understand it at all! The only possible explanation that he could
think of was that some of his workmen must have stolen them! He would
make inquiries, and endeavour to discover the culprits, but in any
case, as this had happened while things were in his charge, if he did
not succeed in recovering them, he would replace them.

As the blinds had been narrowed to fit the conservatory he had to have
four new ones made.

The customer was of course quite satisfied, although very sorry for Mr
Rushton. They had a little chat about it. Rushton told the gentleman
that he would be astonished if he knew all the facts: the difficulties
one has to contend with in dealing with working men: one has to watch
them continually! directly one's back is turned they leave off working!
They come late in the morning, and go home before the proper time at
night, and then unless one actually happens to catch them--they charge
the full number of hours on their time sheets! Every now and then
something would be missing, and of course Nobody knew anything about
it. Sometimes one would go unexpectedly to a 'job' and find a lot of
them drunk. Of course one tried to cope with these evils by means of
rules and restrictions and organization, but it was very difficult--one
could not be everywhere or have eyes at the back of one's head. The
gentleman said that he had some idea of what it was like: he had had
something to do with the lower orders himself at one time and another,
and he knew they needed a lot of watching.

Rushton felt rather sick over this affair, but he consoled himself by
reflecting that he had got clear away