"
"I believe you," says I. "So you took up buttling, eh? Wa'n't that
some nervy jump?"
"I considered it a helpful step in my career," says he.
"Your which?" says I.
"Perhaps I should put it," says he, "that the work seemed to offer the
discipline which would make me most useful to our noble order."
And as he says the last two words he puts his palms at right angles to
his ears, thumbs in, and bows three times.
"Eh?" says I, gawpin'.
"I refer," says Cyril, "to the Brotherhood of the Sacred Owls, which is
also named the Sublime Order of Humility and Wisdom."
And once more he does the ear wigwag. Believe me, he had us all
gaspin'.
"Vurra good, Eddie!" says I. "Sacred Owls, eh? What is that--one of
these insurance schemes?"
"There are both mortuary and sick benefits appertaining to membership,"
says Cyril, "but our chief aim and purpose is to acquire humility and
wisdom. It so happens that I have been named as candidate for Grand
Organizer of the East, and at our next solemn conclave, to be held--"
"I get you," says I. "I can see where you might find some practice in
bein' humble by buttlin', but how about gettin' wise?"
"With humility comes wisdom, as our public ritual has it," says Cyril.
"In the text-book which I studied--'The Perfect Butler'--there was very
little about being humble, however.
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