Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-08-04
CHAPTER XVII.
DINNER IS SERVED.

HAL
Monsieur Pierre, having uttered this
ejaculation, stepped back and rested
his fat hands on his fat hips. AS he
surveyed the impromptu butler, a
shade Of perplexity spread over his oily
face He smoothed his imperial and
frowned. This groom certainly looked
right, but there was something lacking
in his makeup, that indefinable some
thing which is always found in the
true servant-servility.> There was no
humility here, no hypocritical meek
ness, no suavity; there was nothing
SNUG or self-satisfed In truth, there
was something grimly earnest, which
was not to be understood readily.
Monsieur Pierre, having always busted
himself with soups and curries and
roasts and sauces, was not profound
analyst; yet his instructive shrewd-
ness at once told him that this fellow
was no servant, nor could he ever be
made into one. Though voluble enough
in his kitchen, Monsieur Pierre lacked
expression when confronted by any
problem outside of it. Here was the
regulation swallow-tail coat and
trousers of green, the striped red vest.
and the polished brass buttons: but
the man inside was too much for him.
"Diable! You luke right. But no,
I can not explain. Eet ees on zee
tongue, but Get rayfuse. Ha! l hat eet!
You lack vot gay call zee real. You
make me t'ink uf zee sairvant on zee
stage, something bettair off: eh?"
This was as near as monsieur ever got
to the truth Of things.
During this speculative inventory
Warburton's face was gravely set;
indeed, it pictured his exact feelings
He was grave. He even wanted Pierre's
approval. He was about to pass
through very trying ordeal; he might
not even pass through it. There was
no deceiving his colonel's eyes, hang
him! Whatever had induced fate to
force this old Arguseyed soldier upon
the scene? He glanced into the kitchen
mirror. He instantly saw the salient
flaw in his dress. It was the cravat
Tie it as he would, it never approached
the likeness of the conventional cravat
of the waiter. 1t still remained pol.
cravat seen in bathrooms. drawing
rooms, In the theater stalls and boxes
anywhere but in the servants hall
| Oh, for the ready-made cravat that
| hitched to the collar-button! And Their
| there was that servants low turned
down collar, glossy as celluloid. He
| felt as diffident in his bare throat as
a debutante feels in her first decollettt
| ball-gown, not very well covered up
as it were. And, heaven and earth
how appallingly large his hands hat
grown, how clumsy his feet! Would
the colonel expose him? Would he
|. keep silent? This remained to BIZ
found out; wherein lay the terror O.
suspense.
'Remembair," went on Monsieur
Pierre, after pause, feeling that hi
had duty to fulfill and a responsible
ity to shift to other shoulders than his
own, "remembair, eef you spill zet
soup, I keel YOU You carry zee tureel
in, zen you deesh out zee soup, ant
sairve. Zee oystaires should be on zet
table tree minutes before zee guests
hat arrive. Now, can you make ze'
American cocktail?"
~ can, with ghost of a smile
| MAKE heem, with a pompou
wave of the hand toward the favorit'
ingredients.
What kind?"
"Vot kind! Eez zare more cocktails
zen?"
only two that are proper, the man
haitian and the martini"
4 Make zee martini; l know heem.
But cocktails ought not be niixe'
before serving"