notes beneath the plate mid-sentence. He would look at the time and say, ‘Men, you are excellent, thank you.’ His voice, which was always gentle, would rise if he learnt that one of the servants had turned away a needy person or shooed off a cat. The simple rule was never to refuse any one or thing in need. ‘It’s not your job to read their hearts,’ he once told me after I claimed, with shameful certainty, that begging was a profession. ‘Your duty is not to doubt but to give. And don’t ask questions at the door. Allow them only to tell you what they came for after they’ve had tea and something
...more
