'Shall we adjourn to the playing‑fields? said the Doctor. 'I expect they are all waiting for us.
Talking cheerfully, the party crossed the hall and went down the steps.
'Your drive's awful wet, said Lady Circumference. 'I expect there's a blocked pipe somewhere. Sure it ain't sewage?
'I was never any use at short distances, Lord Circumference was saying. 'I was always a slow starter, but I was once eighteenth in the Crick at Rugby. We didn't take sports so seriously at the 'Varsity when I was up: everybody rode. What college were you at?
'Scone.
'Scone, were you? Ever come across a young nephew of my wife's called Alastair Digby-Vane-Trumpington?
'I just met him, said Paul.
'That's very interesting, Greta. Mr Pennyfoot knows Alastair.
'Does he? Well, that boy's doing no good for himself. Got fined twenty pounds the other day, his mother told me. Seemed proud of it. If my brother had been alive he'd have licked all that out of the young cub. It takes a man to bring up a man.
'Yes, said Lord Circumference meekly.