Although I did my best not to, something of my scepticism must have betrayed

itself, for Mr Farraday then added, as though for reassurance, that were it to

prove necessary, then an additional member of staff could be hired. But he would

be much obliged, he repeated, if I could "give it a go with four".

 

Now naturally, like many of us, I have a reluctance to change too much of the

old ways. But there is no virtue at all in clinging as some do to tradition

merely for its own sake. In this age of electricity and modern heating systems,

there is no need at all to employ the sorts of numbers necessary even a

generation ago. Indeed, it has actually been an idea of mine for some time that

the retaining of unnecessary numbers simply for tradition's sake - resulting in

employees having an unhealthy amount of time on their hands - has been an

important factor in the sharp decline in professional standards. Furthermore, Mr

Farraday had made it clear that he planned to hold only very rarely the sort of

large social occasions Darlington Hall had seen frequently in the past. I did

then go about the task Mr Farraday had set me with some dedication; I spent many

hours working on the staff plan, and at least as many hours again thinking about

it as I went about other duties or as I lay awake after retiring. Whenever I

believed I had come up with something, I probed it for every sort of oversight,

tested it through from all angles. Finally, I came up with a plan which, while

perhaps not exactly as Mr Farraday had requested, was the best, I felt sure,

that was humanly possible. Almost all the attractive parts of the house could

remain operative: the extensive servants' quarters - including the back

corridor, the two still rooms and the old laundry - and the guest corridor up o~

the second floor would be dust-sheeted, leaving all the main ground-floor rooms