of
life, he had been noted for the mysterious sobriety of demeanor which
now marked him as an angular, slow-moving, silent and unpleasant old
man.

The devotion of Bugbee to the House of Hanover was clear enough; but the
springs of it were quite unseen until some years later, when they were
laid bare by a rigid Parliamentary inquiry. The astonishing truth was
that this silent and insignificant old man, since the year of the King's
banishment, had controlled with absolute power one of the greatest, if
not the greatest, private fortunes ever accumulated in any country--that
of the royal exile, who was known to his devoted followers as King
George the Fifth.

It is true that the poverty of George, in his residence in the United
States, was of world-wide notoriety. The shifts of the "Court" in Boston
for very existence, and the extraordinary measures adopted from time to
time by royalty to make both ends meet were a scandal in the ears of
kings and courtiers everywhere.

Nevertheless, George was one of the richest men in the world--or at
least he had been while on the throne, and he would be again should he
ever become the reigning monarch of England. The enormous wealth which
had begun to accumulate in Victoria's frugal reign had grown like a
rolling snowball for over a hundred years. For the latter half century
the royal investors had, wisely enough, avoided all national bonds
except those of the two old republics, France and America; but in the
great cities of the earth, and notably in those that stood the least
chance of bombardment or earthquake, the heir of the Hanoverian line was
one of the largest owners of real property.

George's royal grandfather was a generous and almost extravagant
monarch; but his enormous private wealth was sufficient even for so
luxurious a prince. The inheritance which had made his reign stable and
pleasant he secured for his son, strictly stipulating that it was to be
enjoyed by him or his heir while reigning as monarch of England.

Fatal words these of King Edward's will, for they secured the lifelong
poverty of the grandson whose welfare he had at heart. During the few
years of George's reign the royal coffers overflowed with gold. Bugbee,
the King's banker, was exhaustless as an ocean of wealth.

But the revolution that banished the King and his noblemen, among them
those who had been executors with Bugbee of King Edward's will, left the
solemn little banker absolute master of th