Loyalty
While I'm fully aware that Stanislaus Oates is and will always be my friend, I have to admit that the exact conditions of our relations sometimes escape me.
He has never been the type of person to dance around the issue. Would I consider a butler's loyalty towards his employer greater than the loyalty said butler feels towards moral ideals and the law, he asked. Very straightforward, in a dead earnest fashion.
"Please answer this as honest as you can, Campion. Right at the moment, you're about the only person I trust who has a certain inside perspective on the subject."
At this point, I had barely put a foot into his office, hadn't even managed to say something along the lines of "Good morning, Stanislaus, how do you do?".
Stanislaus' tone made it quite clear he didn't want me to ask any questions. Just my expertise, hopefully unbiased. Not my help as a person.
When I told him the two or three things I know about butlers and masters (cultural and social context, professional ethos and such), his eyes remained frosty. Finally, I closed with my own, private observation that despite some shades of grey in between, there are basically two different types of butlers. Those who truly live the ideal of loyal subservience, and those who are quite good at feigning.
I wonder what on earth he is working on at the moment. The case hasn't reached the news yet, and judging from Stanislaus' behaviour I doubt that it ever will.
He has never been the type of person to dance around the issue. Would I consider a butler's loyalty towards his employer greater than the loyalty said butler feels towards moral ideals and the law, he asked. Very straightforward, in a dead earnest fashion.
"Please answer this as honest as you can, Campion. Right at the moment, you're about the only person I trust who has a certain inside perspective on the subject."
At this point, I had barely put a foot into his office, hadn't even managed to say something along the lines of "Good morning, Stanislaus, how do you do?".
Stanislaus' tone made it quite clear he didn't want me to ask any questions. Just my expertise, hopefully unbiased. Not my help as a person.
When I told him the two or three things I know about butlers and masters (cultural and social context, professional ethos and such), his eyes remained frosty. Finally, I closed with my own, private observation that despite some shades of grey in between, there are basically two different types of butlers. Those who truly live the ideal of loyal subservience, and those who are quite good at feigning.
I wonder what on earth he is working on at the moment. The case hasn't reached the news yet, and judging from Stanislaus' behaviour I doubt that it ever will.