The something worse was Hitler, who rallied his people and in his own way went it alone. It was Lloyd-George (prime minister from 1916 to 1922), who said in effect that if the Allies did not ease their payment demands from Germany, something worse would happen. Winston Churchill was also to visit, but much later. Though Stevens did not eavesdrop, he overheard many bits of conversation from the gentlemen and a few ladies. Stevens remembers his anxiety (though things always worked out well) when he and the housekeeper had to coordinate their duties of readying rooms for the statesmen who would stay the night, making sure the silver was perfectly polished, that the wine, the meal, the port and the brandy were at hand so that all could go smoothly and with no apparent effort. World War I was over Germany was repaying its war debts and going ever downhill therefore. Stevens recalls Darlington Hall when he was in his 20s, and serving Lord Darlington. To Stevens this venture into the world beyond Darlington Hall is almost like visiting another planet: It’s still England, he has heard of Salisbury and its magnificent cathedral-but to see it, to have a brief chat with one or two people who live there-this is mind-blowing to Stevens, and causes him to see his own life in what he comes to realize is a better perspective, a more real one than he had. This man takes Stevens for one of the landed gentry at first, such is Stevens’ bearing and well-spokenness. Times have changed, and there is often no housekeeper, footman or cook to assist the butler. He runs out of gas once, has to walk to the nearest village and encounters a most amiable figure of a man-after knocking at the servants’ entrance of a rather fine house-who is also a butler of sorts, but, unlike Stevens, the sole employee. Not too much happens outwardly to Stevens in his six-day tour.

The remains of the day meaning