Which Tells How Barnabas Discharged His Valet

"Yes, sir."

"And now, I think that is all, I shan't want you again tonight--stay
though, before I go to bed bring me the things I wore when I first
met you, the garments which as clothes, you told me, didn't exist."

"Sir, may I ask you a question?"

"Oh, yes--if you wish," sighed Barnabas, wearily.

"Are you leaving London, sir?"

"I'm leaving the World of Fashion--yes."

"And you--don't wish me to accompany you, sir."

"No."

"Have I--displeased you in any way?"

"No, it is only that the 'best valet in the world' would be wasted
on me any longer, and I shall not need you where I am going."

"Not as a--servant, sir?"

"No."

"Then, sir, may I remind you that I am also a--man? A man who owes
all that he is to your generosity and noble trust and faith. And, sir,
it seems to me that a man may sometimes venture where a servant may
not--if you are indeed done with the Fashionable World, I have done
with it also, for I shall never serve any other than you."

Then Barnabas turned away and coming to the mantel leaned there,
staring blankly down at the empty hearth; and in a while he spoke,
though without looking up: "The Fashionable World has turned its polite back upon me, Peterby,
because I am only the son of a village inn-keeper. But--much more
than this--my lady has--has lost her faith in me, my fool's dream
is over--nothing matters any more. And so I am going away to a place
I have heard described by a pedler of books as 'the worst place in
the world'--and indeed I think it is."