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Miss Bunting came to Hallbury with Lady Fielding to inspect her new domain, and in one interview reduced Gradka to a state of subservience which roused Lady Fielding's admiration and curiosity.

"How did you do it?" she asked Miss Bunting subsequently, awestruck.

"I was in Russia before the last war with a daughter of one of the Grand Dukes," said Miss Bunting. "The Russian aristocracy knew how to treat their inferiors. I observed their methods and have practised them with some success."

"But you can't exactly call Gradka inferior," said Lady Fielding, nervously wondering whether she was listening outside the door. "Her father is a university professor and very well known."

"I think," said Miss Bunting, "that you will find the facts much overstated. The young woman, who is probably listening outside the door at the moment, is an inferior. No wellborn Mixo-Lydian would dream of being connected with a university. Until this war they kept up the habits of a real aristocracy: to hunt and get drunk all autumn and winter, and to go to the Riviera and get drunk in the spring and early summer. For the rest of the year they visited their palaces in Lydianopolis where they entertained ballet girls and got drunk."