calling upon you to play your part, while you alone know
that you are a leading member of the Comedie Francaise, just dropped in
at this funny place to look on.

Here, the stage was on a much grander scale, and the play more amusing
than in the couriers' dining-rooms at the hotels where I had been. At
the hotels, the maids and valets scarcely knew each other. Some were in
a hurry, others were tired or in a bad humour. Here the little company
had been together for days. Meals were a relaxation, a time for
flirtation and gossip about their own and each other's masters and
mistresses. Each servant felt the liveliest interest in the "Monsieur"
or "Madame" of his or her neighbour; and the stories that were
exchanged, the criticisms that were made, would have caused the hair of
those _messieurs_ and those _mesdames_ to curl.

If I was openly approved by the gentlemen's gentlemen, Mr. Jack Dane had
the undisguised admiration of the ladies' ladies; and he received their
advances with tact. Dances for the evening were asked for and promised
right and left, among the assemblage, always dependent upon summons from
Above. It was agreed that, if a Monsieur or Madame wished to dance with
you, no previous engagement was to stand, for all the castles and big
houses from far and near would be emptied in honour of the ball, from
drawing-rooms to servants' halls, and quality was to mingle with
quantity, as on similar occasions in England, whence--the chef
explained--came the fashion. It was a feature of _l'entente cordiale_,
and the same agreeable understanding was to level all barriers, for the
night, between high and low.

Some of the visitors' _femmes de chambres_ were pretty, coquettish
creatures, and I was delighted to find that they were all called by
their mistresses' titles. The maid of my _bete noire_ was "Duchesse";
she who pertained to our hostess was "Marquise," and I blossomed into
"Miladi." The girls were looking forward to rivalling their mistresses
in _chic_, and also in the admiration of the real princes and dukes and
counts; that they would have an exclusive right to the attentions of
these gentlemen's understudies also seemed to be expected.

After half an hour at table in the servants' hall, there was nothing
left for me to find out about the owners of the castle and their guests;
but the principal interest of everyone seemed to centre upon the affair
between Mr. Herbert Stokes and the heiress sister of Madame la Ma