“I did not happen to be actually in a situation when I was on the Fort Salisbury, if that is what you mean, Madam,” returned Antony.
“I mean more than that,” retorted the Duchessa. “I mean that by your up-bringing you are not a servant.”
Antony laughed shortly.
“I happen to have had a better education than falls to the lot of most men who have been in the positions I have been in, and who are in positions like my present one. But most assuredly I am a servant.”
“What positions have you been in?” demanded the Duchessa.
A very faint smile showed itself on Antony’s face.
“I have been a sort of miner’s boy,” he replied slowly. “I have been a farm hand, mainly used for cleaning out pigsties, and that kind of work. I have been servant in a gambling saloon; odd man on a cattle boat. I have worked on a farm again. And now I am an under-gardener. Very assuredly I have been, and am, a servant.”
The Duchessa’s brows wrinkled. “Yet you speak like a gentleman, and—and you wore dress clothes as if you were used to them.”
Again a faint smile showed itself on Antony’s face.
“I told you I happen to have had a decent education in my youth. Also, I would suggest, that even butlers and waiters wear dress clothes as if they were used to them.”