"Does it strike you that, when confronted with moral delinquency, I am apt to let my indignation get the better of me ?" "Not at all," I answered heartily, refilling my glass.
It appeared that another reply would have pleased him better.
"H'm.

I was hoping that, perhaps, I had visited his offence too strongly.

As a clergyman, you see, I was bound to be severe; but upon my word, sir, since Parkinson left I have felt like a man who has lost a limb." He drummed with his fingers on the cloth for a few moments, and went on-- "One has a natural disposition to forgive butlers--Pharaoh, for instance, felt it.

There hovers around butlers an atmosphere in which common ethics lose their pertinence.

But mine was a rare bird--a black swan among butlers! He was more than a butler: he was a quick and brightly gifted man.