And so, Colonel and Mrs. Crawley came to London:
and it is at their house in Curzon Street, May Fair,
that they really showed the skill which must be possessed
by those who would live on the resources above named.
The Subject Continued
In the first place, and as a matter of the greatest
necessity, we are bound to describe how a house may
be got for nothing a year. These mansions are
to be had either unfurnished, where, if you have credit
with Messrs. Gillows or Bantings, you can get them
splendidly montees and decorated entirely according
to your own fancy; or they are to be let furnished,
a less troublesome and complicated arrangement to
most parties. It was so that Crawley and his
wife preferred to hire their house.
Before Mr. Bowls came to preside over Miss Crawley’s
house and cellar in Park Lane, that lady had had for
a butler a Mr. Raggles, who was born on the family
estate of Queen’s Crawley, and indeed was a
younger son of a gardener there. By good conduct,
a handsome person and calves, and a grave demeanour,
Raggles rose from the knife-board to the footboard
of the carriage; from the footboard to the butler’s
pantry. When he had been a certain number of
years at the head of Miss Crawley’s establishment,
where he had had good wages, fat perquisites, and
plenty of opportunities of saving, he announced that
he was about to contract a matrimonial alliance with
a late cook of Miss Crawley’s, who had subsisted
in an honourable manner by the exercise of a mangle,
and the keeping of a small greengrocer’s shop
in the neighbourhood. The truth is, that the
ceremony had been clandestinely performed some years
back; although the news of Mr. Raggles’ marriage
was first brought to Miss Crawley by a little boy
and girl of seven and eight years of age, whose continual
presence in the kitchen had attracted the attention
of Miss Briggs.
Mr. Raggles then retired and personally undertook
the superintendence of the small shop and the greens.
He added milk and cream, eggs and country-fed pork
to his stores, contenting himself whilst other retired
butlers were vending spirits in public houses, by
dealing in the simplest country produce. And
having a good connection amongst the butlers in the
neighbourhood, and a snug back parlour where he and
Mrs. Raggles received them, his milk, cream, and eggs
got to be adopted by many of the fraternity, and his
profits increased every year. Year after year
he quietly and modestly amassed money, and when at
length that snug and complete bachelor’s residence
at No. 201, Curzon Street, May Fair, lately the residence
of the Honourable Frederick Deuceace, gone abroad,
with its rich and appropriate furniture by the first
makers, was brought to the hammer, who should go in
and purchase the lease and furniture of the house
but Charles Raggles? A part of the money he borrowed,
it is true, and at rather a high interest, from a brother
butler, but the chief part he paid down, and it was
with no small pride that Mrs. Raggles found herself
sleeping in a bed of carved mahogany, with silk curtains,
with a prodigious cheval glass opposite to her, and
a wardrobe which would contain her, and Raggles, and
all the family.
