Browsing on the internet, Roderick stumbles on this. He thinks it's interesting.
He checks for new stuff about Nigel Farage, and finds this, this and this.
At breakfast in the Dining Hall, Roderick fills his plate with scrapple and applesauce, then sits down next to Megan, who is buxom and bubbly.
"How's the writing going?" he inquires.
Megan brightens. "Well, thank you. My novel's almost finished, just polishing the denouement. I have to figure out a way for Basingstoke to reveal his sex-change operation to Charlotte without making Mabel suspect anything. And Charlotte must somehow escape Lady Margaret's dungeon."
"So it's a comedy of manners?"
"Yes, with ample spanking."
Roderick ponders that. Tricky piece of narrative. Well, he thinks, if anyone can write her way out of a dungeon with ample spanking, Megan can.
Megan breaks the silence. "Don't you feel a little creepy driving Mr. Lincoln's car?"
"Not really. It's the Beauneville Way." Roderick refers to the Beauneville Way of Doing Things, which includes keeping cars forever. Mr. Durant down at the DeSoto dealer likes to say that every car he's ever sold is still running, which is only a little bit of sales hyperbole because everyone knows that Mr. Whiffle drove a 1947 DeSoto Club Coupe into the Rushing River on a cold night in January 1954. Mr. Whiffle had consumed one too many glasses of Calvados at the Beaune estate and was on his way to a whorehouse in Stapleton when he missed the steel bridge by about ten yards and went straight into the river. The car sank like a stone and was not seen again, nor was Mr. Whiffle.
So except for Mr. Whiffle's 1947 DeSoto Club Coupe, every car sold by Durand DeSoto is still running. When Chrysler discontinued the brand in 1960, Mr. Durand never took the sign down, but just kept on trading in used cars and keeping the existing stock running. Since Beauneville denizens rarely drive farther than Stapleton, and generally stick to a leisurely pace on the highways, the cars just keep on running.
All this talk about cars is making Megan feel daring. "Maybe we could go for a ride some time and you can fuck me in the back seat."
"That sounds like fun," says Roderick, "but Molly gets to go first."
