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- Sep 2020
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icla2020b.jonreeve.com icla2020b.jonreeve.com
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I went round with him to the servants’ hall. It is very disgraceful, but it is not the less true, that I had another attack of the detective-fever, when he said those last words. I forgot that I hated Sergeant Cuff. I seized him confidentially by the arm. I said, “For goodness’ sake, tell us what you are going to do with the servants now?”
I can't help but think the detective fever stuff is a little incongruous with Betteredge's character. Clearly Betteredge holds authority in high regard, and takes pride in being useful, but he also struck me as someone who does not like complications, especially those that involve the people he feels most loyal to. Even in his own personal life he seemed to prefer a cool detachment, opting for (in his old age, perhaps) the least complicated answers to troubling questions.
The image in my mind of him was something like the thin mustachioed butler character that I vaguely remember from old looney tunes cartoons.
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