Page:Lippincotts Monthly Magazine-39.djvu/876

356 "Certainly," said Mrs. Madison. "The towels in that drawer are for drying the china."

Parkins blushed so brightly that she really pitied him.

"Beg pardon, ma'am," he stammered, "but you see a man gets so awfully rough in the West, ma'am. We hadn't many towels on the ranch. Thank you, ma'am. I'll use them in future. I'm very anxious to learn."

The drawing-room was henceforth entertained with the pantry episodes, of which this was the beginning.

In the main, however, Parkins gave satisfaction. He was sober, diligent, almost chivalrous in his attention to the wants of the ladies. The defects in his education as a butler were soon remedied, for Mrs. Madison was an excellent housekeeper and was willing to take untold trouble to instruct any one who was teachable. The fresh, handsome face of Parkins, his respectful and manly bearing, and his charming English accent, which was evidently not that of a cockney, ingratiated him with his employers and even their acquaintance.

Occasionally a new book or paper was missing from the sitting-room, and more than once it was found in the pantry among the rouge-cloths and plate-powder. In one case the missing volume was one of Lecky's, and Miss Arden, who had searched in vain, asked Parkins if he had seen it. He confessed to having borrowed it; and when Sylvia looked at him with obvious surprise, he made some confused remark about "bettering his education."

"If he can appreciate that book," said Miss Arden afterwards to her sister, "his education doesn't need much bettering."

One evening, when John Parkins had been with the Madisons for a month or more, several newly-arrived English people dined at the house. From the moment when the party sat down at the table, Parkins began to behave strangely. He became absent-minded and inattentive. His strongest desire appeared to be to get out of the room as quickly as possible.

Mr. Madison was annoyed, and thought for a moment that his butler might be under the influence of liquor; but after he had watched him for a minute or two he was convinced that the man was perfectly sober, though evidently laboring under great mental perturbation.

But, as one cannot watch one's butler all the evening, Mr. Madison's attention was soon diverted, and the circumstance passed from his mind.

One day in the early spring a letter came for George Madison from the British Legation at Washington.

It requested information in regard to the whereabouts of Mr. Cecil