I would not have thought such a style of waiting a great stimulant to appetite."

 

But now that I think further about it, I am not sure Miss Kenton spoke quite so

boldly that day. We did, of course, over the years of working closely together

come to have some very frank exchanges, but the afternoon I am recalling was

still early in our relationship and I cannot see even Miss Kenton having been so

forward. I am not sure she could actually have gone so far as to say things

like: 'these errors may be trivial in themselves, but you must yourself realize

their larger significance'. In' fact, now that I come to think of it, I have a

feeling it may have been Lord Darlington himself who made that particular remark

to me that time he called me into his study some two months after that exchange

with Miss Kenton outside the billiard room. By that time, the situation as

regards my father had changed significantly following his fall.

 

The study doors are those that face one as one comes down the great staircase.

 

There is outside the study today a glass cabinet displaying various of Mr

Farraday's ornaments, but throughout Lord Darlington's days, there stood at that

spot a bookshelf containing many volumes of encyclopedia, including a complete

set of the Britannica. It was a ploy of Lord Darlington's to stand at this shelf

studying the spines of the encyclopedias as I came down the staircase, and

sometimes, to increase the effect of an accidental meeting, he would actually

pull out a volume and pretend to be engrossed as I completed my descent. Then,

as I passed him, he would say: 'Oh, Stevens, there was something I meant to say

to you.' And with that, he would wander back into his study, to all appearances