his lordship himself made three separate trips to Paris within the space of two

months. Finally, having secured the agreement of a certain extremely illustrious

Frenchman - I will merely call him 'M. Dupont' - to attend the gathering on a

very strict 'off the record' basis, the date for the conference was set. That is

to say, for that memorable March of 1923.

 

As this date grew ever nearer, the pressures on myself, though of an altogether

more humble nature than those mounting on his lordship, were nevertheless not

inconsequential. I was only too aware of the possibility that if any guest were

to find his stay at Darlington Hall less than comfortable, this might have

repercussions of unimaginable largeness. Moreover, my planning for the event was

complicated by the uncertainty as to the numbers involved. The conference being

of a very high level, the participants had been limited to just eighteen very

distinguished gentlemen and two ladies - a German countess and the formidable

Mrs Eleanor Austin, at that time still resident in Berlin; but each of these

might reasonably bring secretaries, valets and interpreters, and there proved no

way of ascertaining the precise number of such persons to expect. Furthermore,

it became clear that a number of the parties would be arriving some time before

the three days set aside for the conference, thus giving themselves time to

prepare their ground and gauge the mood of fellow guests, though their exact

arrival dates were, again, uncertain. It was clear then that the staff would not

only have to work extremely hard, and be at their most alert, they would also

have to be unusually flexible. In fact, I was for some time of the opinion that

this huge challenge ahead of us could not be surmounted without my bringing in

additional staff from outside. However, this option, quite aside from the