While driving his car, Stevens continues to think about the role of the butler. To Stevens, the mark of a truly great butler is one who seeks to serve in a household that is internationally renowned and capable of “furthering the progress of humanity” (84). To Stevens, such households are inherently aristocratic and noble. However, not many butlers in the contemporary world have the opportunity to seek out such households.

Noticing “a heated smell emanating from the car engine” (87), Stevens pulls up outside an old Victorian stately home in the hope that the resident chauffeur might be able to assist him. A man appears and, without much fuss, replaces the water in the dried-out radiator. Stevens notices that the furniture in the house is covered in sheets. The man explains that the owner of the house is in the midst of selling it because it is too large. The man is impressed by Stevens’s claim that he works at Darlington Hall. He suggests that there “can’t be many like you left” (88) any longer. When the man asks about Lord Darlington, however, Stevens denies that he worked for his former employer.