1928 Viscountess Viola Vorpel
(Prefatory Note)
You will find in these pages fragments, trifles, diaries, fables, ditties, sermons and other scraps besides. They do not always match, nor are they obliged to. The Dukes never cared to be understood—why should their record be simpler than their reign?
There are keys, naturally. Every family keeps them. A butler’s ring, a house-keeper’s apron, a dowager’s pocket, a child’s rhyme. None are labelled and most have been misplaced. From time to time you may stumble on one; more often you will only discover the lock.
Do not trouble yourself overmuch. Return later and the same words will have changed. The Mallards are like that: elusive, ridiculous, eternal. You will read this book more than once if you mean to know it at all—and even then you will only know what it allows.
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