But Sandy! No, Austin was not equal to putting up with Sandy.
There was, however, one gentleman in the neighbourhood whom Master Austin was gracious enough to approve.

This was a certain Mr Roger St Aubyn, a man of taste and culture, who possessed a very rare collection of fine pictures and old engravings which nobody had ever seen.

St Aubyn was, in fact, something of a recluse, a student who seldom went beyond his park gates, and found his greatest pleasure in reading Greek and cultivating orchids.

It was by the purest accident that the two came across each other.

Austin was lying one afternoon on a bank of wild hyacinths just outside Combe Spinney, lazily admiring the effect of his bright black leg against the bright blue sky, and thinking of nothing in particular.