By two thirty that afternoon, Shade, who was at home, still had not received a reply from Miss Galina. Instead, someone knocked on the downstairs door.
When he opened it, a Four-wheeled Carriage was waiting outside. There was no one inside, but the coachman, with a cigarette clenched between his lips, handed Shade a note. It bore Miss Galina's elegant flowing handwriting, telling Shade to get in and come see her directly.
It seemed that the Great Witch took Shade's request for a visit quite seriously as well.
The carriage carried Shade through the sweltering city, following a route he had traveled once before, toward Miss Galina's estate outside the city. Last time he had come here at night, and the unnatural Great Fog had made Shade suspect that it might be some sort of "Witches' home." But in daylight, there was nothing unusual to be seen.
The country estate under the sunlight looked as though it had just been washed clean. The roof tiles gleamed in the afternoon sun. The lawn had been trimmed to nearly uniform height, and after the carriage entered through the front gate, Shade saw a group of servants in the distance pruning the large trees in the courtyard.
Once again, he gained a new understanding of Miss Galina's wealth.
Compared with the resplendent royal manor houses, Miss Galina's home was relatively "plain" inside. Its only truly noteworthy feature was the oil paintings lining the corridor walls. She probably liked scenery from various places; those obviously expensive paintings were all landscapes, without a single portrait among them.
They met in the second-floor study. When Shade knocked and entered, besides the Duchess and her personal maid, there was also a middle-aged woman dressed in a white shirt and formal women's skirt suit, reporting on tax matters.