he always
gave people their due, and exactly their due; she never over-praised or
blamed, and that was why people said that she was cold; it was also,
incidentally, responsible for her excellent discipline.

She was, as Sir Jeremy had said, a woman of amazing method. But the
attitude of her actual household helped her; they were all, by
education and environment, Trojans. Whatever they had been before they
entered service at "The Flutes"--Radicals, Socialists, Dissenters, or
Tones--at the moment of passing the threshold they were transformed
into Trojans. Other things fell from them like a mantle, and in their
serious devotion to traditional Conservatism they were examples of the
true spirit of Feudalism. Beldam, the butler, had long ago graduated
as Professor in the system. Coming as page-boy in earlier years, he
had acquired the by no means easy art of Trojan diplomacy. It was now
his duty to overhaul, as it were, every servant that passed the gates;
an overhauling, moreover, done seriously and with much searching of the
heart. Were you a Trojan? That is, do you consider that you are
exceptionally fortunate in being chosen to perform menial but necessary
duties in the Trojan household? Will you spend the rest of your days,
not only in performing your duties worthily, but also in preaching to a
blind and misguided world the doctrine of Trojan perfection and
superiority? If the answer were honestly affirmative, you were
accepted; otherwise, you were expelled with a fortnight's wages and
eternal contempt.

Even the scullerymaid was not spared, but had to pass an examination in
rites and rituals so severe that one unfortunate, Annie Grace Marks,
after Beldam had spoken to her severely for half-an-hour, burst out
with an impetuous, "Thank Gawd, she was a Marks, which was as good as
the High and Mighty any day of the week, and better, for there wasn't
no pride in the Marks and never 'ad been."

She received her dismissal that same evening.

But the case of Annie Marks was an isolated one. Rebellion was very
occasional, and, for the most, the servants stayed at "The
Flutes"--partly because the pay was good, and partly because the very
reiteration of Trojan supremacy gave them a feeling of elevation very
pleasant to their pride. In accordance with all true feudal law, you
lost your own sense of birth and ancestry and became in a moment a
Trojan; for Smith, Jones, and Robinson this was very comforting.

So Cl