ly with your
friends, who, it seems to me, would one and all insist upon
finishing a 'creation,' as you call it, even if lightning should
strike the house."

"From that point of view," said he, "I'm confident that Jane will
do."

So Jane came, and for a year, strange to relate, was all that her
references claimed for her. She was neat, clean, and capable. She
was sober and industrious. The wine had never been better served;
the dinner had rarely come to the table so hot. Had she been a
butler of the first magnitude she could not so have discouraged the
idea of acquaintance; her attraction, if anything, was a combination
of her self-effacement and her ugliness. The latter might have been
noticed as she entered the dining-room; it was soon forgotten in the
unconsciously observed ease with which she went through her work.

"She's fine," said Perkins, after a dinner of twelve covers served
by Jane with a pantry assistant. "I've always had a sneaking notion
that nothing short of a butler could satisfy me, but now I think
otherwise. Jane is perfection, and there is nothing paralyzing
about her, as there is about most of those reduced swells who wait
on tables nowadays."

In August the family departed for the mountains, and the house was
left in charge of Jane and the cook, and right faithfully did they
fulfil the requirements of their stewardship. The return in
September found the house cleaned from top to bottom. The hardwood
floors and stairs shone as they had rarely shone before, and as only
an unlimited application of what is vulgarly termed "elbow-grease"
could make them shine. The linen was immaculate. Ireland is not
freer from snakes than was the house of Perkins from cobwebs, and no
speck of dust except those on the travellers was visible. It was
evident that even in the absence of the family Jane was true to her
ideals, and the heart of Mrs. Perkins was glad. Furthermore, Jane
had acquired a full third set of teeth, which seemed to take some of
the lines from her face, and, as Perkins observed, added materially
to the general effect of the surroundings, although they were
distressingly new. But, alas! they marked the beginning of the end.
Jane ceased to wait upon the table with that solemnity which is
essential to the manner of a "treasure"; she smiled occasionally,
and where hitherto she had treated the conversation at the table
with stolid indifference, a witticism would invariably now bring the