men and hyena boys that the thing was a perfect scandal.
The Duke indeed was so poor that a younger son, simply
to add his efforts to those of the rest, was compelled
to pass his days in mountain climbing in the Himalayas,
and the Duke's daughter was obliged to pay long visits
to minor German princesses, putting up with all sorts of
hardship. And while the ducal family wandered about in
this way--climbing mountains, and shooting hyenas, and
saving money, the Duke's place or seat, Dulham Towers,
was practically shut up, with no one in it but servants
and housekeepers and gamekeepers and tourists; and the
picture galleries, except for artists and visitors and
villagers, were closed; and the town house, except for
the presence of servants and tradesmen and secretaries,
was absolutely shut. But the Duke knew that rigid parsimony
of this sort, if kept up for a generation or two, will
work wonders, and this sustained him; and the Duchess
knew it, and it sustained her; in fact, all the ducal
family, knowing that it was only a matter of a generation
or two, took their misfortune very cheerfully.

The only thing that bothered the Duke was borrowing money.
This was necessary from time to time when loans or
mortgages fell in, but he hated it. It was beneath him.
His ancestors had often taken money, but had never borrowed
it, and the Duke chafed under the necessity. There was
something about the process that went against the grain.
To sit down in pleasant converse with a man, perhaps
almost a gentleman, and then lead up to the subject and
take his money from him, seemed to the Duke's mind