where the personality of the mistress was so
completely overshadowed by the stronger personality of the master
the latter's secretary was a more important personage to the
servants than the unobtrusive wife.

Jefferson went up the grand staircase hung on either side with
fine old portraits and rare tapestries, his feet sinking deep in
the rich velvet carpet. On the first landing was a piece of
sculptured marble of inestimable worth, seen in the soft warm
light that sifted through a great pictorial stained-glass window
overhead, the subject representing Ajax and Ulysses contending for
the armour of Achilles. To the left of this, at the top of another
flight leading to the library, was hung a fine full-length
portrait of John Burkett Ryder. The ceilings here as in the lower
hall were richly gilt and adorned with paintings by famous modern
artists. When he reached this floor Jefferson was about to turn to
the right and proceed direct to his mother's suite when he heard a
voice near the library door. It was Mr. Bagley giving instructions
to the butler.

The Honourable Fitzroy Bagley, a younger son of a British peer,
had left his country for his country's good, and in order to turn
an honest penny, which he had never succeeded in doing at home, he
had entered the service of America's foremost financier, hoping to
gather a few of the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table and
disguising the menial nature of his position under the high-sounding
title of private secretary. His job called for a spy and a toady and
he filled these requirements admirably. Excepting with his employer,
of whom he stood in craven fear, his manner was condescendingly
patronizing to all with whom he came in contact, as if he were
anxious to impress on these American plebeians the signal honour
which a Fitzroy, son of a British peer, did them in deigning to
remain in their "blarsted" country. In Mr. Ryder's absence,
therefore, he ran the house to suit himself, bullying the servants
and not infrequently issuing orders that were contradictory to
those already given by Mrs. Ryder. The latter offered no resistance,
she knew he was useful to her husband and, what to her mind was a
still better reason for letting him have his own way, she had
always had the greatest reverence for the British aristocracy. It
would have seemed to her little short of vulgarity to question the
actions of anyone who spoke with such a delightful English accent.
Moreover, h