The Mission of Mr. Eustace Greyne
Book Excerpt
When Mr. Greyne returned from his shopping excursion the barouche, loaded almost to the gunwale--if one may be permitted a nautical expression in this connection--had to be disburdened, and its contents conveyed upstairs to Mr. Greyne's bedroom, into which Mrs. Greyne herself presently entered to give directions for their disposing. Nor was it till the hour of sunset that everything was in due order, the straps set fast, the keys duly turned in the locks--the labels--"Mr. Eustace Greyne: Passenger to Algiers: via Marseilles"--carefully written out in a full, round hand. Rook's tickets had been bought; so now everything was ready, and the last evening in England might be spent by Mr. Greyne in the drawing-room and by Darrell in the servants' hall quietly, socially, perhaps pathetically.
The pathos of the situation, it must be confessed, appealed more to the master than to the servant