Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VII. Sunlight
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152 DAYS IN THE SUN
is the confidante of the wife. She calls for her mis-
tress’ letters at the post-office, and if she is able to
read she will open them on the way home, so zealous is
her interest in the affairs of her employers.
As the servant-girl is the woman’s confidante, so is
the male servant the master’s confidant. He looks
after the master’s interests in the same way. The male
servant also takes his liberties. He smokes a cigarette
while serving meals; he swears in the drawing room;
he lies like a lizard in his master’s window and spits
through the window on the sidewalk.
The servants who faithfully share their master’s
poverty also demand their part in the master’s wealth,
and a normal employer makes no objection in such
cases. As an example of the tolerance with which the
upper classes regard their servants, it may be men-
tioned that Andalusian servants have the reputation,
as compared with all the other servants in Spain, of
being as true as gold in matters of money. But their
fidelity turns out on closer inspection to consist in their
not cheating their master for their own advantage, but
only in the interests of their own parents, or of a child,
or of a lover, or of all three at once. Since all per-
sons have some one who is near and dear to them, this
form of mulcting is almost a certainty and may become
quite costly. Andalusia resembles Greenland in one
respect at least: as soon as any member of the family
has found some means of a livelihood, all the rest of
the family will retire from active life to sponge upon
him.
The native-born employer accepts these conditions
with that incomprehensible charity which always im-
parts to the Andalusian’s countenance, even where his
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