Part 23 (1/2)

”Well, sir, it means doing all you require, and being always in attendance when you change.”

”How much do you get for it?”

”Thirty s.h.i.+llings a week, sir.”

”Say, Pearson,” said Tembarom, with honest feeling, ”I'll give you sixty s.h.i.+llings a week NOT to do it.”

Calmed though he had felt a few moments ago, it cannot be denied that Pearson was aghast. How could one be prepared for developments of such an order?

”Not to do it, sir!” he faltered. ”But what would the servants think if you had no one to valet you?”

”That's so. What would they think?” But he evidently was not dismayed, for he smiled widely. ”I guess the plainclothes man would throw a fit.”

But Pearson's view was more serious and involved a knowledge of not improbable complications. He knew ”the hall” and its points of view.

”I couldn't draw my wages, sir,” he protested. ”There'd be the greatest dissatisfaction among the other servants, sir, if I didn't do my duties. There's always a--a slight jealousy of valets and ladies'- maids. The general idea is that they do very little to earn their salaries. I've seen them fairly hated.”

”Is that so? Well, I'll be darned! ” remarked Mr. Temple Barholm. He gave a moment to reflection, and then cheered up immensely.

”I'll tell you how we'll fix it. You come up into my room and bring your tatting or read a newspaper while I dress.” He openly chuckled.

”Holy smoke! I've GOT to put on my s.h.i.+rt and swear at my collar- b.u.t.tons myself. If I'm in for having a trained nurse do it for me, it'll give me the w.i.l.l.i.e.s. When you danced around me before dinner--”

Pearson's horror forced him to commit the indiscretion of interrupting.

”I hope I didn't DANCE, sir,” he implored. ”I tried to be extremely quiet.”

”That was it,” said Tembarom. ”I shouldn't have said danced; I meant crept. I kept thinking I should tread on you, and I got so nervous toward the end I thought I should just break down and sob on your bosom and beg to be taken back to home and mother.”

”I'm extremely sorry, sir, I am, indeed,” apologized Pearson, doing his best not to give way to hysterical giggling. How was a man to keep a decently straight face, and if one didn't, where would it end? One thing after another.

”It was not your fault. It was mine. I haven't a thing against you.

You're a first-rate little chap.”

”I will try to be more satisfactory to-morrow.”

There must be no laughing aloud, even if one burst a blood- vessel. It would not do. Pearson hastily confronted a vision of a young footman or Mr. Burrill himself pa.s.sing through the corridors on some errand and hearing master and valet shouting together in unseemly and wholly incomprehensible mirth. And the next remark was worse than ever.

”No, you won't, Pearson,” Mr. Temple Barholm a.s.serted. ”There's where you're wrong. I've got no more use for a valet than I have for a pair of straight-front corsets.”

This contained a sobering suggestion.

”But you said, sir, that--”

”Oh, I'm not going to fire you,” said Tembarom, genially. ”I'll 'keep you on', but little Willie is going to put on his own socks. If the servants have to be pacified, you come up to my room and do anything you like. Lie on the bed if you want to; get a jew's-harp and play on it--any old thing to pa.s.s the time. And I'll raise your wages. What do you say? Is it fixed?”

”I'm here, sir, to do anything you require,” Pearson answered distressedly; ”but I'm afraid--”

Tembarom's face changed. A sudden thought had struck him.

”I'll tell you one thing you can do,” he said; ”you can valet that friend of mine.”