THE RELUCTANT DUKE Tears were not at all to Pollyooly's liking.

She considered them the sign of a feeble heart and softening brain.

The Honourable John Ruffin had thrown quite a new light on them in suggesting that they could be used as a weapon; and she considered this use of them most of the way to Ricksborough House.
She reached it soon after half-past two.

She found its gloomy nineteenth-century facade, black with the smuts of ninety years, a little daunting, and mounted its broad steps in some trepidation.

But she rang the bell hard and knocked firmly.
Lucas, the butler of the duke, himself opened the door.