It seemed a background fit for the return of chivalry. In such
a forest a king and all his court might lose themselves hunting
or a knight errant might perish with no companion but God. The castle
itself when he reached it was somewhat smaller than he had expected,
but he was delighted with its romantic and castellated outline.
He was just about to alight when somebody opened two enormous gates
at the side and the vehicle drove briskly through.
"That is not the house?" he inquired politely of the driver.
"No, sir," said the driver, controlling the corners of his mouth.
"The lodge, sir."
"Indeed," said the Duc de Chambertin-Pommard, "that is where
the Duke's land begins?"
"Oh no, sir," said the man, quite in distress. "We've been in his
Grace's land all day."
The Frenchman thanked him and leant back in the carriage,
feeling as if everything were incredibly huge and vast, like Gulliver
in the country of the Brobdingnags.
He got out in front of a long facade of a somewhat severe building,
and a little careless man in a shooting jacket and knickerbockers
ran down the steps. He had a weak, fair moustache and dull, blue,
babyish eyes; his features were insignificant, but his manner
extremely pleasant and hospitable, This was the Duke of Aylesbury,
perhaps the largest landowner in Europe, and known only as a horsebreeder
until he began to write abrupt little letters about the Budget.
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