Word: diddington
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Since the days when he was enrolled on the staff at stately 400-year-old Diddington Hall, Rodwell Patience had been a model manservant. As an apple-cheeked footman, he was up at dawn each day to oil the lamps and trim the wicks. No faithful servitor in the vicinity could pad about with such noiseless efficiency or efface himself with such dignity as Patience, and he was a dab at removing the pips from his master's grapes before setting them on table...
...when the old squire of Diddington died, it was natural that Patience should be elevated by the new squire, Guardsman Noel Thornhill, to the rank of butler...
...exwife, supporting another and paying ardent court to a prospective third. Where, wondered the local police, who kept a closer eye on Butler Patience than his master did, was he getting the money to spend? Lawyers and Legacies. Last December, as Captain Thornhill, lord of the manor of Diddington, lay dying of a stroke, the police found their answer in the bare bedrooms of the old house itself. Patience was hauled off to court and charged with stealing some ?3,000 worth of family heirlooms. The family lawyers promptly fired...
Twenty-three days later, without ever learning of his former butler's perfidy, the squire of Diddington died. In his will, he left Patience a handsome legacy-some $30,000 in cash and a lifetime income-on condition that the butler was still in his service when he died...
| 1 |