the rest of him, that I found myself beginning to smile every now and
then, but directly I saw the serious eyes on me, I felt obliged to
become grave at once.

The waiting at table I could not exactly pronounce a success; for,
although Joe's quick eyes detected in an instant if I wanted
anything, his anxiety to be "first in the field," and give Mary no
chance of instructing him in his duties, made him collide against her
more than once in his hasty rushes to the sideboard and back to my
elbow with the dishes, which he generally handed to me long before he
reached me, his long arms enabling him to reach me with his hands
while he was yet some distance from me, and often on the wrong side.
I also noticed when I wanted water he lifted the water-bottle on
high, and poured as though it was something requiring a "head." Mary
nearly caused a catastrophe at that moment by frowning at him, and
saying, sotto voce, "Whatever are you doing? Is that the way to pour
out water? It ain't hale, stoopid!"

Joe's face became scarlet; and to hide his confusion he seized a
dish-cover, and hastily went out of the room with it, returning in a
moment pale and serious as became one who at heart was every inch a
family butler with immense responsibilities.

Joe was quiet and sharp, quick and intelligent; but I could see he
was quite new to waiting at table. To remove a dish was, I could see,
his greatest dread; and it amused me to see the cleverness with which
he managed that Mary should do that part of the duty.

When only my plate and a dish remained to be cleared away, he would
slowly get nearer as I got towards the last morsel, and before Mary