Page:Through a Glass Lightly (1897, Greg).djvu/133

 than keep watch and guard over the cellar key, and pour out wine for alien drinkers. He is responsible for the plate, and, if in nothing besides, he shows herein the marked superiority of his sex, for if he do not apply the rouge himself, he constrains the footman or the page-boy. In no house where woman predominates do we ever find plate kept as plate should, darkly lustrous and beautifully bright. The trim cap and dainty apron of suburban Phyllis may please and delight some, but, for solid grandeur and substantial splendour, and, it may be added, potential enjoyment, we look solely to those houses whose threshold is guarded and whose portals are opened, by that great emblem of British respectability, the British Butler. Fair Phyllis may crown our brows with myrtle or with