If it's any comfort to you, he wouldn't have suffered much pain. There was

nothing in the world you could have done to save him."

 

"Thank you, sir."

 

"I'll be on my way now. You'll see to arrangements?"

 

"Yes, sir. However, if I may, there is a most distinguished gentleman downstairs

in need of your attention."

 

"Urgent?"

 

"He expressed a keen desire to see you, sir." I led Dr Meredith downstairs,

showed him into the billiard room, then returned quickly to the smoking room

where the atmosphere, if anything, had grown even more convivial.

 

Of course, it is not for me to suggest that I am worthy of ever being placed

alongside the likes of the 'great' butlers of our generation, such as Mr

Marshall or Mr Lane - though it should be said there are those who, perhaps out

of misguided generosity, tend to do just this. Let me make clear that when I say

the conference of 1923, and that night in particular, constituted a turning

point in my professional development, I am speaking very much in terms of my own

more humble standards. Even so, if you consider the pressures contingent on me

that night, you may not think I delude myself unduly if I go so far as to

suggest that I did perhaps display, in the face of everything, at least in some