misgivings his lordship was bound to have as regards gossip travelling, entailed

my having to rely on unknown quantities just when a mistake could prove most

costly. I thus set about preparing for the days ahead as, I imagine, a general

might prepare for a battle: I devised with utmost care a special staff plan

anticipating all sorts of eventualities; I analysed where our weakest points lay

and set about making contingency plans to fall back upon in the event of these

points giving way; I even gave the staff a military-style 'pep-talk', impressing

upon them that, for all their having to work at an exhausting rate, they could

feel great pride in discharging their duties over the days that lay ahead.

"History could well be made under this roof," I told them. And they, knowing me

to be one not prone to exaggerated statements, well understood that something of

an extraordinary nature was impending.

 

You will understand then something of the climate prevailing around Darlington

Hall by the time of my father's fall in front of the summerhouse - this

occurring as it did just two weeks before the first of the conference guests

were likely to arrive - and what I mean when I say there was little room for any

'beating about the bush'.

 

My father did, in any case, rapidly discover a way to circumvent the limitations

on his effectiveness implied by the stricture that he should carry no laden

trays. The sight of his figure pushing a trolley loaded with cleaning utensils,

mops, brushes arranged incongruously, though always tidily, around teapots, cups

and saucers, so that it at times resembled a street-hawker's barrow, became a

familiar one around the house. Obviously he still could not avoid relinquishing