PROJECT ASHABI
African Stories. Limitless Worlds.
PROJECT ASHABI
African Stories. Limitless Worlds.
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Complete unabridged public-domain literary work from the Project Gutenberg archive.
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CHAPTER I. THE MASTER OF HARKINGS CHAPTER II. AT TWILIGHT CHAPTER III. A DISCOVERY CHAPTER IV. BETWEEN THE DESK AND THE WINDOW CHAPTER V. IN WHICH BUDE LOOKS AT ROBIN GREVE CHAPTER VI. THE LETTER CHAPTER VII. VOICES IN THE LIBRARY CHAPTER VIII. ROBIN GOES TO MARY CHAPTER IX. MR. MANDERTON CHAPTER X. A SMOKING CHIMNEY CHAPTER XI. “... SPEED THE PARTING GUEST!” CHAPTER XII. MR. MANDERTON IS NONPLUSSED CHAPTER XIII. JEEKES CHAPTER XIV. A SHEET OF BLUE PAPER CHAPTER XV. SHADOWS CHAPTER XVI. THE INTRUDER CHAPTER XVII. A FRESH CLUE CHAPTER XVIII. THE SILENT SHOT CHAPTER XIX. MR. MANDERTON LAYS HIS CARDS ON THE TABLE CHAPTER XX. THE CODE KING CHAPTER XXI. A WORD WITH MR. JEEKES CHAPTER XXII. THE MAN WITH THE YELLOW FACE CHAPTER XXIII. TWO’S COMPANY ... CHAPTER XXIV. THE METAMORPHOSIS OF MR. SCHULZ CHAPTER XXV. THE READING OF THE RIDDLE CHAPTER XXVI. THE FIGURE IN THE DOORWAY CHAPTER XXVII. AN INTERRUPTION FROM BEYOND CHAPTER XXVIII. THE DEATH OF HARTLEY PARRISH
Of all the luxuries of which Hartley Parrish’s sudden rise to wealth gave him possession, Bude, his butler, was the acquisition in which he took the greatest delight and pride. Bude was a large and comfortable-looking person, triple-chinned like an archdeacon, bald-headed except for a respectable and saving edging of dark down, clean-shaven, benign of countenance, with a bold nose which to the psychologist bespoke both ambition and inborn cleverness. He had a thin, tight mouth which in itself alone was a symbol of discreet reticence, the hall-mark of the trusted family retainer.
Bude had spent his life in the service of the English aristocracy. The Earl of Tipperary, Major-General Lord Bannister, the Dowager Marchioness of Wiltshire, and Sir Herbert Marcobrunner, Bart., had in turn watched his gradual progress from pantry-boy to butler. Bude was a man whose maxim had been the French saying, “_Je prends mon bien où je le trouve_.”
In his thirty years’ service he had always sought to discover and draw from those sources of knowledge which were at his disposal. From MacTavish, who had supervised Lord Tipperary’s world-famous gardens, he had learnt a great deal about flowers, so that the arrangement of the floral decorations was always one of the features at Hartley Parrish’s _soigné_ dinner-parties. From Brun, the unsurpassed _chef_, whom Lord Bannister had picked up when serving with the Guards in Egypt, he had gathered sufficient knowledge of the higher branches of the cuisine to enable Hartley Parrish to leave the arrangement of the menu in his butler’s hands.
Bude would have been the first to admit that, socially speaking, his present situation was not the equal of the positions he had held. There was none of the staid dignity about his present employer which was inborn in men like Lord Tipperary or Lord Bannister, and which Sir Herbert Marcobrunner, with the easy assimilative faculty of his race, had very successfully acquired. Below middle height, thick-set and powerfully built, with a big head, narrow eyes, and a massive chin, Hartley Parrish, in his absorbed concentration on his business, had no time for the acquisition or practice of the Eton manner.
It was characteristic of Parrish that, seeing Bude at a dinner-party at Marcobrunner’s, he should have engaged him on the spot. It took Bude a week to get over his shock at the manner in which the offer was made. Parrish had approached him as he was supervising the departure of the guests. Waving aside the footman who offered to help him into his overcoat, Parrish had asked Bude point-blank what wages he was getting. Bude mentioned the generous remuneration he was receiving from Sir Herbert Marcobrunner, whereupon Parrish had remarked:
“Come to me and I’ll double it. I’ll give you a week to think it over. Let my secretary know!”
After a few discreet enquiries, Bude, faithful to his maxim, had accepted Parrish’s offer. Marcobrunner was furiously angry, but, being anxious to interest Parrish in a deal, sagely kept his feelings to himself. And Bude had never regretted the change. He found Parrish an exacting, but withal a just and a generous master, and he was not long in realizing that, as long as he kept Harkings, Parrish’s country place where he spent the greater part of his time, running smoothly according to Parrish’s schedule, he could count on a life situation.
Arthur Conan Doyle
