[ Compliments from Hubert are still something he’s getting used to – like a snake singing an aria, he’d said – though this latest is far more Hubert, and not quite as strange. Backhanded, some might call it, but Ferdinand chooses to view it through the lens of what he knows of his friend, and viewed in that way, he believes it to be much more complimentary than it sounds.

He laughs, even as he guides them around the lawn. ]

And you, my friend, seem as if someone has stuffed an iron rod down the back of your jacket. Are you not enjoying yourself?