It would take a
catalogue to list the establishments maintained by the
Wallings--there was an estate in North Carolina, and another in the
Adirondacks, and others on Long Island and in New Jersey. Also there
were several in Newport--one which was almost never occupied, and
which Mrs. Billy Alden sarcastically described as "a
three-million-dollar castle on a desert."
Montague accompanied Alice once or twice, and had an opportunity to
study Mrs. Robbie at home. There were thirty-eight servants in her
establishment; it was a little state all in itself, with Mrs. Robbie
as queen, and her housekeeper as prime minister, and under them as
many different ranks and classes and castes as in a feudal
principality. There had to be six separate dining-rooms for the
various kinds of servants who scorned each other; there were
servants' servants and servants of servants' servants. There were
only three to whom the mistress was supposed to give orders--the
butler, the steward, and the housekeeper; she did not even know the
names of many of them, and they were changed so often, that, as she
declared, she had to leave it to her detective to distinguish
between employees and burglars.
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