on the monthly bills, which in circles where lavish
entertainment is the order of the day amounted to a tidy little income
in itself. My only embarrassment lay in the contact into which I was
necessarily brought with other butlers, with whom I was perforce
required to associate. This went very much against the grain at first,
for, although I am scarcely more than a thief after all, I am an
artistic one, and still retain the prejudice against inferior
associations which an English gentleman whatever the vicissitudes of his
career can never quite rid himself of. I had to join their club--an
exclusive organization of butlers and "gentlemen's gentlemen"--otherwise
valets--and in order to quiet all suspicion of my real status in the Van
Raffles household I was compelled to act the part in a fashion which
revolted me. Otherwise the position was pleasant, and, as I have
intimated, more than lucrative.

It did not take me many days to discover that Henriette was a worthy
successor to her late husband. Few opportunities for personal profit
escaped her eye, and I was able to observe as time went on and I noted
the accumulation of spoons, forks, nutcrackers, and gimcracks generally
that she brought home with her after her calls upon or dinners with
ladies of fashion that she had that quality of true genius which never
overlooks the smallest details.

The first big coup after my arrival, as the result of her genius, was in
the affair of Mrs. Gaster's maid. Henriette had been to a bridge
afternoon at Mrs. Gaster's and upon her return manifested an
extraordinary degree of excitement. Her color was high, and when she
spoke her voice was tremulous. Her disturbed condition was so evident
that my heart sank into my boots, for in our business nerve is a _sine
qua non_ of success, and it looked to me as if Henriette was losing
hers. She has probably lost at cards to-day, I thought, and it has
affected her usual calmness. I must do something to warn her against
this momentary weakness. With this idea in mind, when the opportunity
presented itself later I spoke.

"You lost at bridge to-day, Henriette," I said.

"Yes," she replied. "Twenty-five hundred dollars in two hours. How did
you guess?"

"By your manner," said I. "You are as nervous as a young girl at a
commencement celebration. This won't do, Henriette. Nerves will prove
your ruin, and if you can't stand your losses at bridge, what will you
do in the face of the greater crisis