to my parish church, two miles away,
married them, and dismissed them in the vestry without characters. I
wish you had known that butler--but excuse me; with the information I
have supplied, you ought to find no difficulty in fixing the price you
will take to clear out of my house instanter."

"Sir," I answered, "I have held a pistol at one or two heads in my
time; but never at one stuffed with nobler discretion. Your chivalry
does not, indeed, disarm me, but prompts me to desire more of your
acquaintance. I have found a gentleman, and must sup with him before I
make terms."

The address seemed to please him. He shuffled across the room to a
sideboard, and produced a plate of biscuits, another of almonds and
dried raisins, a glass and two decanters.

"Sherry and Madeira," he said. "There is also a cold pie in the
larder, if you care for it."

"A biscuit will serve," I replied. "To tell the truth, I'm more for
the bucket than the manger, as the grooms say; and, by your leave, the
brandy you were testing just now is more to my mind than wine."

"There is no water handy."

"There was plenty out of doors to last me with this bottle."

I pulled over a chair, and laid my pistol on the table, and held out
the glass for him to fill. Having done so, he helped himself to a
glass and a chair, and sat down facing me.

"I was talking, just now, of my late butler," he began, with a sip
at his brandy. "Has it struck you that, when confronted with moral
delinquency, I am apt to let my indignation get the better of me?"

"Not at all," I answered heartily, refilling my glass.

It appeared that another reply would have pleased him better.

"H'm. I was hoping that, perhaps, I had visited his offence too
strongly. As a clergyman, you see, I was bound to be severe; but upon
my word, sir, since he went I have felt like a man who has lost a
limb."

He drummed with his fingers on the cloth for a few moments, and went
on:

"One has a natural disposition to forgive butlers--Pharaoh, for
instance, felt it. There hovers around butlers that peculiar
atmosphere which Shakespeare noticed as encircling kings, an
atmosphere in which common ethics lose their pertinence. But mine was
a rare bird--a black swan among butlers. He was more than a butler: he
was a quick and brightly-gifted man. Of the accuracy of his taste,
and the unusual scope of his endeavor, you will be able to form some
opinion when I assure you he modelled himself upon _