and I believe the telling and retelling of this story was as close as my father

ever came to reflecting critically on the profession he practised. As such, it

gives a vital clue to his thinking.

 

The story was an apparently true one concerning a certain butler who had

travelled with his employer to India and served there for many years maintaining

amongst the native staff the same high standards he had commanded in England.

One afternoon, evidently, this butler had entered the dining room to make sure

all was well for dinner, when he noticed a tiger languishing beneath the dining

table. The butler had left the dining room quietly, taking care to close the

doors behind him, and proceeded calmly to the drawing room where his employer

was taking tea with a number of visitors. There he attracted his employer's

attention with a polite cough, then whispered in the latter's ear: "I'm very

sorry, sir, but there appears to be a tiger in the dining room. Perhaps you will

permit the twelve-bores to be used?"

 

And according to legend, a few minutes later, the employer and his guests heard

three gun shots. When the butler reappeared in the drawing room some time

afterwards to refresh the teapots, the employer had inquired if all was well.

 

"Perfectly fine, thank you, sir," had come the reply. "Dinner will be served at

the usual time and I am pleased to say there will be no discernible traces left

of the recent occurrence by that time."

 

This last phrase - 'no discernible traces left of the recent occurrence by that