Jervis laughed a little in his turn.
"Of course, all this is quite between ourselves? It would never do if Mr. Ashley knew I'd remarked upon it, but people can't help seeing what goes on under their noses if they're not blind, and gentlemen's gentlemen see more than other people, to say nothing of their having to do with it in a manner of speaking. Well, there was one time I remember particularly, because it seemed so funny—the sort of thing nobody but Mr. Ashley would have thought of, yet it came quite natural-like to him. It was last time he came home from Monte Carlo, where he'd been making money for the bank. I don't believe he had a penny piece to call his own, and he was going out in the evening. 'Jervis,' he says, 'put out my dress clothes early; I'm dining out to-night.' So I went to do it, but couldn't find any shirts in his portmanteau. When he went away I'd sent all his linen to the laundry, and they wouldn't send it back without he paid the bill, which was a pretty long one. 'Have you any shirts, sir?' I asked, and he took me up, vexed-like. 'How the devil am I to know?' he says; 'find some.' Course I had to tell him about the laundry, and he colours up and says he'll be hanged if he writes them a cheque."
"How did you manage?" Mr. Tracy enquired.
"I didn't manage at all," Jervis announced; "that's what I'm telling you. It worried me at the time, although it wasn't me who was going out, but Mr. Ashley takes it all as a matter of course. 'Go over to the Burlington Arcade,' he says, like a lord, 'and tell my hosiers to send over three dozen and put them down to my account.'"
"Did they do it?" Mr. Tracy asked.
"Do it?" said Jervis scornfully; "of course they did it. Seems to me people will do anything in this world if you only bluff them enough. Still, there's a case to show what I mean. I should never have thought of getting three dozen shirts on credit because I couldn't pay my laundry bill, but to Mr. Ashley it was the natural thing to do."
Mr. Tracy was really amused, but he thought it a most illuminating anecdote, and followed up the vein it opened.
"So Mr. Ashley plays at Monte Carlo, does he? Well, one wants a long purse for that game. Does he entertain much here? He very well might where things are so well done."
Jervis appreciated the compliment.
"Only a very occasional supper," he answered. "I'm sure I'm sorry he doesn't have company oftener." Jervis's regret may, perhaps, have been due to financial considerations, but he hastened to admit that Mr. Ashley's failure to receive his friends in Jermyn Street made the work lighter for his attendants. "Of course, it makes the place an easier one for me," he said, "and I will say that, although there are times when for weeks together he doesn't know where to lay his hand on a shilling, Mr. Ashley is very considerate and very free with his money when he's got any. Often and often he's thrown me over a couple of sovereigns and said I might find them useful if I knew anybody who would like to go up to Hampton Court or have an afternoon at Kempton—which I do."