lity of performing their
duties is the very last thing to enter their minds. They cannot afford
to remain 'out of a situation,' and therefore take the first that
offers itself as a stopgap, with no more intention of permanently
remaining there than a European who accepts an appointment in Turkey,
and with the same object--namely, to make as much as possible out of
the Turks in the meantime.

In the case of a man-servant, especially in London, no written
character should ever be held sufficient. A personal interview with his
late master or mistress is indispensable. This gives a little trouble,
no doubt, on both sides; but those who grudge it, for such a purpose,
must indeed be grossly selfish, and when they engage a ticket-of-leave
man for their butler get no worse than they deserve. One of the best
butlers, however, I ever knew was a ticket-of-leave man--engaged on the
faith of a written character, which was, of course, a forged one, and
who remained with his employer no less than eighteen months. If his
speculations on the turf had been successful, he might have parted with
him the best of friends, and perhaps have purchased a residence in the
same square; but something went wrong with the brother to Bucephalus,
whom he had backed for the Derby, and the poor man had to dispose of
the whole of his master's family plate to pay his own debts of honour
and defray his travelling expenses--probably to some considerable
distance, as the police could never hear of him. The risk in taking a
butler without a personal guarantee of at least his honesty and
sobriety can indeed hardly be exaggerated. If a clever fellow, his
influence over his fellow-servants of the other sex is very great, and
it is a recognised maxim of the class never 'to tell upon one another'
so long as they remain good friends. I have heard an experienced
housewife say there is nothing she dreads so much as an unbroken
harmony below stairs; like silence in the nursery, it is ominous of all
sorts of mischief.

Of course, the ticket-of-leave man was an extreme case; but it is
certain that some butlers who are not thieves are always treading on
the very confines of roguery. They are like trustees who, though they
will not touch the principal entrusted to them, not only omit to put it
out to the best advantage, but will sometimes even pocket a portion of
the interest 'for their trouble.' I remember reading a curious case of
this sort. A gentleman who had been wi