Anthony Hope

“ Byers wished that the quick breath and the bright eyes were for him himself, not for the helper of the Prince; and for that moment he forgot Mrs. Byers and the babies in Portland Place; it was years since he had had any such wish about any woman; he felt a sympathy with Prince Julian, who had almost cried when he signed the Manifesto, because, if he mounted the throne, Ellen Rivers would leave him.
"We want money now, directly," she went on. "We want the Manifesto in every house. I can manage the distribution. And we must pay people—bribe them. We must sow seed. ”

“ If the Prince's party had not the necessary resources they could do nothing; if they did nothing, would not the drooping Stock lift up her head again? Now nobody was in a position to solve that problem about the necessary resources so surely or so swiftly as Mr. Byers.
A hundred yards from Prince Julian's house he saw Lady Craigennoch walking along the pavement, and got out of his cab to join her. She was full of the visit she had just paid, above all of Ellen Rivers,
"Because she's the whole thing, you know," she said. "The adherents—good gracious, what helpless creatures! ”

“ We shall both be repaid by his success."
"You're a very strange woman," he said. Probably he did not know how straight and hard his eyes were set on her; they could not leave her. What a pity it was that she would not go with the Prince—as his wife, or even (to use Lady Craigennoch's charitably evasive phrase) as she was now. To set the Prince on the seat of his ancestors was not an exploit that appealed to Mr. Byers; but to set this woman on a throne would be worth—well, how much? Mr. Byers detected this question in his own heart; he could not help reducing things to figures. ”

“ Byers with a perfect seriousness in his slightly nasal tones; and when they parted he said to himself, "That woman hates having to know me." But there were many people in that position; and he spent much time in increasing the number; so the reflection caused him no pain, but rather a sense of self-complacency; when people know you who hate having to know you, you are somebody. The thought passed, and the next moment he found himself being glad that Ellen Rivers had a woman to speak to—or to cry to—even though it were only Lady Craigennoch. ”

“ There were plenty such in the City; were there none in Palace Gate?
"It's a matter of business—" again he began.
She stopped him with an imperious wave of the fan. Her eyes grew animated with a sudden enlightenment; she looked at him for a moment or two, and then asked, "Have you been making money out of it somehow?" He did not answer. "How, please?" she asked. ”

“ Thus, as has been said, the whole affair had only three obvious effects—the renovation of Lady Craigennoch's town house, a baronetcy for Sir Henry Shum (services to the Party are a recognized claim on the favor of His Majesty) , and the marriage of Prince Julian. But from it both Mrs. Rivers and Mr. Byers derived some new ideas of the world and of themselves. Shall women weep and hard men curse their own work without result? The Temple of Truth is not a National Institution. So, of course, one pays to go in. Even when you are in, it is difficult to look at more than one side of it at once. ”

“ Prince Julian had plenty of imagination; without any difficulty he imagined himself regaining his ancestral throne, sitting on it in majesty, and establishing it in power. This vision Mrs. Rivers called up before his receptive mind by detailing her conversation with Mr. Byers. "You want nothing but money to do it," she said. And Byers had money in great heaps; Shum had it too, and Shum was for present purposes Byers; so were a number of other persons, all with money. "I believe the people are devoted to me in their hearts," said Prince Julian ”

“ Whoever had drawn it up—and this question was never settled—he knew how to lay his finger on all the weak spots of the existing Government, how to touch on the glories of Prince Julian's House, what tone to adopt on vexed questions, how to rouse the enthusiasm of all the discontented. "Given that the Prince's party possess the necessary resources," observed the same leading journal, "it cannot be denied that the situation has assumed an aspect of gravity." And the poor Stock fell yet a little more ”

“ Then the youngest of them, a fair boy, great at dances and late suppers, but with a brain for figures and a cool boldness which made him already rich and respected in the City, tilted his shining hat still further back and drawled out, "If you've lost your nerve, Byers, you'd better let somebody else engineer the thing." ”

“ Shum, and Lady Craigennoch were present sometimes; Mrs. Rivers and Byers were never wanting. The Prince's imagination was immensely stimulated in those days; Lady Craigennoch's love for a speculation was splendidly indulged; Mr. Shum's cautious disposition received terrible shocks. Mrs. Rivers discussed European politics, the attitude of the Church, and the secret quarrels of the Cabinet in Prince Julian's country; and Byers silently gathered together all the money of his own and other people's on which he could lay hands. He was meditating a great coup ”

“ The birth and attributes of Rumor have often engaged the attention of poets; who can doubt that their rhetoric would have been embellished and their metaphors multiplied had they possessed more intimate acquaintance with the places where money is bought and sold? ”

“ For in respect of awakening widespread interest and affecting the happiness of homes, what is the character of any lady, however high-born, conspicuous, or beautiful, compared with the character of a Stock? ”

“ Only I was such a fool. Good-by, Mr. Byers." She held out her hand. He had not meant to offer his. But he took hers and pressed it. He had a vague desire to tell her that he was not a type of all humanity, that other men were better than he was, that there were unselfish men, true men, men who did not make fools of women for money's sake, yes, of women whose shoes they were not worthy to black. But he could not say anything of all this, and he left her without another word. And the next morning he bought the "call" of a big block of the Stock; for the news of Prince Julian's marriage with Mrs. ”