The Man Who Was Nobody by Edgar Wallace

Lady Tynewood came down to her panelled dining-room and disturbed Mr Augustus Javot in his study of the day's racing. He was the same tall lank man, upon whom the passing of time worked no apparent change. Though his name was French, he came of an old English family in the north, though very few members of that family boasted of the fact. He was supposed to be secretary factotum and bailiff to Lady Tynewood, but his attitude to her was not that of the hired servant. She swept into the room, and even in the cruel light of morning her unlined face was pleasant to look upon.

"Javot," she said. He did not look up. "Javot," she said more sharply; and he turned his face to hers with a sigh of patient resignation.