merican supposed that the man had entered to
perform some menial service, but to his surprise he softly closed the
door behind him.

"Might I have a word with you, sir, if you can kindly give me a moment?"
he said in the velvety voice which always got upon the visitor's
republican nerves.

"Well, what is it?" the journalist asked sharply.

"It's this, sir." The footman drew from his breast-pocket the copy of
the _Clarion_. "A friend over the water chanced to see this, sir, and he
thought it would be of interest to me. So he sent it."

"Well?"

"You wrote it, sir, I fancy."

"What if I did."

"And this 'ere footman is your idea of me."

The American glanced at the passage and approved his own phrases.

"Yes, that's you," he admitted.

The footman folded up his document once more and replaced it in his
pocket.

"I'd like to 'ave a word or two with you over that, sir," he said in the
same suave imperturbable voice. "I don't think, sir, that you quite see
the thing from our point of view. I'd like to put it to you as I see it
myself. Maybe it would strike you different then."

The American became interested. There was "copy" in the air.

"Sit down," said he.

"No, sir, begging your pardon, sir, I'd very much rather stand."

"Well, do as you please. If you've got anything to say, get ahead with
it."

"You see, sir, it's like this: There's a tradition--what you might call a
standard--among the best servants, and it's 'anded down from one to the
other. When I joined I was a third, and my chief and the butler were
both old men who had been trained by the best. I took after them just as
they took after those that went before them. It goes back away further
than you can tell."

"I can understand that."

"But what perhaps you don't so well understand, sir, is the spirit that's
lying behind it. There's a man's own private self-respect to which you
allude, sir, in this 'ere article. That's his own. But he can't keep
it, so far as I can see, unless he returns good service for the good
money that he takes."

"Well, he can do that without--without--crawling."

The footman's florid face paled a little at the word. Apparently he was
not quite the automatic machine that he appeared.

"By your leave, sir, we'll come to that later," said he. "But I want you
to understand what we are trying to do even when you don't approve of our
way of doing it. We are trying to make life smooth and easy for our