The servants had carried the gold trays out into the garden after her. Melville and Lady Brancepeth, who were more comfortable in the embrace of their plush couches, returned within-doors; Othmar drew his chair nearer to hers, and offered her a cigarette.
‘Rurality always wants this consolation, Princess,’ he said, as he did so.
‘Thanks; not till I have finished my strawberries. They are delicious. How do you manage your households? If we go home unexpectedly anywhere we always find the servants away, the major-domo drunk, the house topsy-turvy, and not a thing to eat within twenty miles. How did you keep them at this point of perfection?’
‘They are never sure that I may not arrive at any moment. If servants be not ready at any hour of the day or night they are not worth their salt. Then I have very faithful stewards——’
‘One marvel does not explain another. The fidelity is perhaps more astonishing than the perpetual readiness.’
‘I reward fidelity; most people limit themselves to accepting it. If you do not pay your servant well he will help himself.’
‘I am sure we pay—pay endlessly. Platon spends Heaven knows what on the servants, but he gets only a mob of rogues, who rob him right and left.’
‘I have no right to suppose the Prince less wise than myself; but perhaps there is other payment as well as money in which he does not deal. I let the humblest man in my service have plenty of hope; there is no moral tonic so bracing; each of them knows that he may rise if he only deserve it. Then, again, I am heedful to have my house-stewards men of high character; a house-steward is one’s viceroy—one cannot be too careful in choosing him.’
‘I should never have supposed you cared about those things, Othmar,’ she said, in much surprise, as she stared at him, a strawberry held uneaten against her lips.