Doomsday by Warwick Deeping

The only incident of note that happened up at Carslake was that "Phoebus" proved too big to be housed in any of the "George" stables. A man had to be sent for from a local garage to take the monster away and dispose of him for the night. Obviously, the "George Inn" should have felt humbled, but that was not so, and the Sussex odd-man-about-the-yard was coarsely ironical.

That short week-end puzzled Fream considerably. Very properly he tried to talk "Mary" to old Viner, and was surprised to meet in Mary's father an obtuseness, a seeming lack of interest. Mary was to be a rich man's wife, secure and comfortable, but the old campaigner's eyes remained dull. Fream got on better with Mrs. Charlotte, perhaps because she did nearly all the talking while he sat there like a pale and beglassed Buddha. But Mary was the most baffling of the humans, and yet she gave him something that was almost a thrill.