The First Are Extremely
Elegant, If Not Too Much Ornamented, The Last Are Very Shabby And
Disagreeable.
Nothing gives me such chagrin, as the necessity I
am under to hire a valet de place, as my own servant does not
speak the language.
You cannot conceive with what eagerness and
dexterity those rascally valets exert themselves in pillaging
strangers. There is always one ready in waiting on your arrival,
who begins by assisting your own servant to unload your baggage,
and interests himself in your affairs with such artful
officiousness, that you will find it difficult to shake him off,
even though you are determined beforehand against hiring any such
domestic. He produces recommendations from his former masters,
and the people of the house vouch for his honesty.
The truth is, those fellows are very handy, useful, and obliging;
and so far honest, that they will not steal in the usual way. You
may safely trust one of them to bring you a hundred loui'dores
from your banker; but they fleece you without mercy in every
other article of expence. They lay all your tradesmen under
contribution; your taylor, barber, mantua-maker, milliner,
perfumer, shoe-maker, mercer, jeweller, hatter, traiteur, and
wine-merchant: even the bourgeois who owns your coach pays him
twenty sols per day. His wages amount to twice as much, so that I
imagine the fellow that serves me, makes above ten shillings a
day, besides his victuals, which, by the bye, he has no right to
demand.
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