"JosephAddison&RichardSteele-DaysWithSirRogerDeCoverley" - читать интересную книгу автора (Addison Joseph)

with their master. You would take his valet de chambre for his
brother, his butler is gray-headed, his groom is one of the
gravest men that I have ever seen, and his coachman has the looks
of a privy-counsellor. You see the goodness of the master even
in the old house-dog, and in a gray pad that is kept in the
stable with great care and tenderness out of regard to his past
services, tho' he has been useless for several years.

I could not but observe with a great deal of pleasure the joy
that appeared in the countenance of these ancient domesticks upon
my friend's arrival at his country-seat. Some of them could not
refrain from tears at the sight of their old master; every one of
them press'd forward to do something for him, and seemed
discouraged if they were not employed. At the same time the good
old Knight, with the mixture of the father and the master of the
family, tempered the enquiries after his own affairs with several
kind questions relating to themselves. This humanity and good-
nature engages every body to him, so that when he is pleasant
upon any of them, all his family are in good humour, and none so
much as the person whom he diverts himself with. On the
contrary, if he coughs, or betrays any infirmity of old age, it
is easy for a stander-by to observe a secret concern in the looks
of all his servants.

My worthy friend has put me under the particular care of his
butler, who is a very prudent man, and, as well as the rest of
his fellow-servants, wonderfully desirous of pleasing me, because
they have often heard their master talk of me as of his
particular friend.

My chief companion, when Sir Roger is diverting himself in the
woods or the fields, is a very venerable man who is ever with Sir
Roger, and has lived at his house in the nature of a chaplain
above thirty years. This gentleman is a person of good sense and
some learning, of a very regular life and obliging conversation.
He heartily loves Sir Roger, and knows that he is very much in
the old Knight's esteem, so that he lives in the family rather as
a relation than a dependent.

I have observed in several of my papers, that my friend Sir
Roger, amidst all his good qualities, is something of an
humorist; and that his virtues, as well as imperfections, are as
it were tinged by a certain extravagance, which makes them
particularly HIS, and distinguishes them from those of other men.
This cast of mind, as it is generally very innocent in itself, so
it renders his conversation highly agreeable, and more delightful
than the same degree of sense and virtue would appear in their
common and ordinary colours. As I was walking with him last
night, he asked me how I liked the good man whom I have just now
mentioned? and without staying for my answer told me, That he