Excerpt:

Lord Alex Walton, bored once again with the triviality of idling his life away on mundane pleasures, had called on Viola early in the morning with a view to ask her on an outing. The lady Viola, despite her unavoidable enjoyment of simple matters, had agreed to follow him on his trip, allowing him the freedom of choosing their destination. He had chosen, much to her consternation and after only a moment’s worth of consideration, to take them to France. Having asked the servants to prepare a little food for them, and having driven back to Lord Alex’s home by a hansom cab, they had reached the so recently acquired hot air balloon, and, upon the arrival of its hired driver had set out across the English countryside. Along the way they had stopped a few times, momentarily, to pick up some of their acquaintances and dear friends, but only, as Lord Alex had insisted, “the utterly charming ones.”

~

Ahead of them sprawled London, its once busy streets now quietened, and beneath them the English countryside spread out, and they passed over it blindly, gaining momentum.