Sunday 20 August 2023

The Peacock 975

 It is hard to say now where the conversation is going to go from here.  Carl appears to be completely out of his element, and of course he is outside of his element.  This is going to be for him a hard and difficult apprenticeship, made all the harder if he isn't prepared to accept his chosen teachers.

"Tell me about the house you live in, Carl", says Cynthia.

"The mansion?"

"Yes.  If you don't mind, please."

"It was built just after the First World War.  My, or our, great grandfather was suddenly extremely wealthy from his silver mines in Indonesia.  He wanted to raise his family outside of Europe, since the devastation of the Great War.  But when he returned to Europe to  fetch his family, his wife refused to leave Holland, plus he had a lot of pending business to take care of, so he never got to live there.  He rented the place out as a hunting lodge.  Problems of family, business and state kept him in the Netherlands where he died, never to return again to Canada."

"How big a house is it?"

"Sixty rooms."

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