BY POPULAR DEMAND.(The Talk of the Town)(conversation with Paul Burrell, Princess Diana's former butler, during his book tour)

In the art of the high-profile literary striptease, it is always wise to keep something in reserve. Drawn-out exercises in revelation often prefigure anticlimax, and a second book--or, at least, a tantalizing round of public appearances. And so it was, in the week of the publication of Bill Clinton's big, stainless memoir, that Paul Burrell, the beleaguered former butler of Princess Diana, found himself once again reluctantly preparing for the spotlight, in a one-night-only one-man show at Town Hall. (Three additional shows had been cancelled, for lack of audience.) He was promoting the paperback of his memoir, "A Royal Duty," which, according to its cover, "includes explosive new material." "President Clinton would tell you that it's important for people who witness history to report it," Burrell said. "I want to go back into the shadows, but they won't let me now."

Burrell, who is forty-six, has oiled nails and a nice tan and curly chestnut-colored hair. A few hours before the show, he was sitting in an armchair on the stage with a contemplative look on his face, gazing out at the empty theatre. Strains of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 drifted by, reminding him of Sunday afternoons, black-and-white movies--particularly David Lean's "Brief Encounter," the Princess's favorite--and seeing "the Boss," as he calls her in his book, playing the piece rapturously on her piano. Beside him on a small table were a microphone, a wineglass, and a pitcher of water on a doily-covered metal tray.

Though Burrell admits to personal fastidiousness and was dressed in a jacket of his own design, which had a royal-purple lining to match the purple "D" coronet cufflinks that the Princess had given him on a special occasion ("I can't tell you what!"), he is not high-maintenance. "I've got a dressing room?" he asked Ian Osborne, a young retainer sent by the London production company in charge of the show. "Why do I need a dressing room? I'm already dressed." Osborne thought for a moment and said solicitously, "To relax in the interval." Burrell retired there to brace himself for what he felt would be an onslaught of emotion ...