There’re petals everywhere,” called Pauline the next morning from the top of the stairs. “Yes, Mrs. Mendelson,” replied Dudley, running up the stairs. Dudley treasured his employment with the illustrious Mendelson family, and wished things to continue as they had always been. It was no secret among the help in the grander houses of the city that Dudley was recompensed for his services at a salary that far exceeded any of theirs, a knowledge that elevated him to a sort of celebrity status in domestic circles. On the numerous occasions throughout the years of the Mendelson parties, he knew that the guests attending were the greatest and grandest in the land, and it pleased him to be called by name by many of them, especially several of the former Presidents of the country who were regular visitors in the house. It was a measure of the high esteem with which Jules Mendelson held him that only he, and no one else, was allowed to dust van Gogh’s painting of the White Roses, which was the most favored possession in the art-filled house.
