10下 | 尊严大揭秘，英格兰第一

上期回顾

父亲轶事一则，完美诠释尊严。但你以为这就是尊严的全部了？不存在的。

读者自读

故事的背景是说其实Stevens还有个兄弟，但是很可惜，死在了战场上was killed during the Southern African War，老爸深感痛心felt this loss keenly。但是这死却无法说成是为国捐躯之类的gave his life gloriously for king and country，而是送命于一场臭名昭著的战役my brother had perished in a particularly infamous manoeuvre。因为只是一个后台很硬的蠢将军做错了决定，才让士兵们白白送命died quite needlessly。但是这位将军，不仅没有收到任何军事责罚，还转行做了商人。父亲对他的恨就可想而知。然而好巧不巧，有这么一天，这个杀子仇人竟然要来府上做客，而且是贵宾，因为父亲的主人要跟他做生意。 

正文阅读

When the wounds of bereavement had only superficially healed, my father was called into Mr John Silvers's study to be told that this very same personage - I will call him simply 'the General' - was due to visit for a number of days to attend a house party, during which my father's employer hoped to lay the foundations of a lucrative(=profitable) business transaction.

Yet so well did my father hide his feelings, so professionally did he carry out his duties, that on his departure the General had actually complimented Mr John Silvers on the excellence of his butler and had left an unusually large tip in appreciation - which my father without hesitation asked his employer to donate to a charity.

'Dignity' has to do crucially with a butler's ability not to abandon the professional being he inhabits. Lesser butlers will abandon their professional being for the private one at the least provocation. For such persons, being a butler is like playing some pantomime role; a small push, a slight stumble, and the facade will drop off to reveal the actor underneath. The great butlers are great by virtue of their ability to inhabit their professional role and inhabit it to the utmost; they will not be shaken out by external events, however surprising, alarming or vexing. They wear their professionalism as a decent gentleman will wear his suit: he will not let ruffians or circumstance tear it off him in the public gaze; he will discard it when, and only when, he wills to do so, and this will invariably be when he is entirely alone. It is, as I say, a matter of 'dignity'.

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