ade of it!
All my rights! . . . And then we shall go on governing. What else is
there to do? All over the world we shall declare that there is no longer
mine or thine, but ours. China, the United States, two-thirds of Europe,
will certainly fall in and obey. They will have to do so. What else can
they do? Their official rulers are here with us. They won't be able
to get together any sort of idea of not obeying us.... Then we
shall declare that every sort of property is held in trust for the
Republic....'

'But, sir!' cried Firmin, suddenly enlightened. 'Has this been arranged
already?'

'My dear Firmin, do you think we have come here, all of us, to talk
at large? The talking has been done for half a century. Talking
and writing. We are here to set the new thing, the simple, obvious,
necessary thing, going.'

He stood up.

Firmin, forgetting the habits of a score of years, remained seated.

'WELL,' he said at last. 'And I have known nothing!'

The king smiled very cheerfully. He liked these talks with Firmin.

Section 3

That conference upon the Brissago meadows was one of the most
heterogeneous collections of prominent people that has ever met
together. Principalities and powers, stripped and shattered until all
their pride and mystery were gone, met in a marvellous new humility.
Here were kings and emperors whose capitals were lakes of flaming
destruction, statesmen whose countries had become chaos, scared
politicians and financial potentates. Here were leaders of thought and
learned investigators dragged reluctantly to the control of affairs.
Altogether there were ninety-three of them, Leblanc's conception of
the head men of the world. They had all come to the realisation of the
simple truths that the indefatigable Leblanc had hammered into them;
and, drawing his resources from the King of Italy, he had provisioned
his conference with a generous simplicity quite in accordance with the
rest of his character, and so at last was able to make his astonishing
and entirely rational appeal. He had appointed King Egbert the
president, he believed in this young man so firmly that he completely
dominated him, and he spoke himself as a secretary might speak from the
president's left hand, and evidently did not realise himself that he was
telling them all exactly what they had to do. He imagined he was
merely recapitulating the obvious features of the situation for their
convenience. He was dressed in ill-fitting white