`` What are bees ? '' asked Tom . `` What make honey . '' `` What is honey ? '' asked Tom . `` Thou hold thy noise , '' said Grimes . `` Let the boy be , '' said the keeper . `` He 's a civil young chap now , and that 's more than he 'll be long if he bides with thee . '' Grimes laughed , for he took that for a compliment . `` I wish I were a keeper , '' said Tom , `` to live in such a beautiful place , and wear green velveteens , and have a real dog-whistle at my button , like you . '' The keeper laughed ; he was a kind-hearted fellow enough . `` Let well alone , lad , and ill too at times . Thy life 's safer than mine at all events , eh , Mr. Grimes ? '' And Grimes laughed again , and then the two men began talking , quite low . Tom could hear , though , that it was about some poaching fight ; and at last Grimes said surlily , `` Hast thou anything against me ? '' `` Not now . '' `` Then do n't ask me any questions till thou hast , for I am a man of honour . '' And at that they both laughed again , and thought it a very good joke . And by this time they were come up to the great iron gates in front of the house ; and Tom stared through them at the rhododendrons and azaleas , which were all in flower ; and then at the house itself , and wondered how many chimneys there were in it , and how long ago it was built , and what was the man 's name that built it , and whether he got much money for his job ? These last were very difficult questions to answer .
For Harthover had been built XXXXX ninety different times , and in nineteen different styles , and looked as if somebody had built a whole street of houses of every imaginable shape , and then stirred them together with a spoon .
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