The Long Nights
The House keeps two calendars.
One hangs in the hall and agrees with everybody else’s. The other is kept by the candles — and the candles have already decided that it is autumn.
They are lit earlier now. By half past six the hallway has gone the colour of a good burgundy, and the brass on the door has stopped warming up by lunchtime. It stays cold all day.
You feel it before you feel anything else.
October is our favourite month, and we will tell you why.
Summer devotees arrive flushed and hurried, having half-run from the tube. Autumn devotees arrive quiet. They have walked.
They have had time, on the walk, to think about precisely what they intend to ask for — and by the time the door opens they have rehearsed it so thoroughly that saying it aloud comes as something close to relief.
That is the whole month, really.
The nights draw out and so do the sessions. The velvet takes the cold and gives it back slowly.
Somebody always asks whether we do anything special for Hallowe’en, and we always give the same answer:
The House does not require a costume.
Come in October, if you can.
Wear a coat.
Walk the last ten minutes.
THE HOUSE LEXICON
Tribute
(n.)
Not a fee.
A fee purchases a service and closes the matter. A tribute is offered before anything begins, and quietly alters the temperature of everything that follows.
The word is a great deal older than this House and we claim no credit for it — though we have noticed that nobody who uses it correctly has ever asked us for a receipt.
Which brings us, with some reluctance, to the practical half of the letter.
Our tributes rise on 5th October.
FROM 5TH OCTOBER 2026
Our New Tributes
45 minutes — £200
1 hour — £260
1½ hours — £360
2 hours — £460
2½ hours — £560
Beyond two and a half hours, add £100 for each further half hour.
And with the practical matters attended to, we return to October.
The nights are getting longer, the candles are being lit earlier, and October is waiting at the door.
Come when you are ready.
The House will be waiting.
