the hotel note-paper.
Felix Babylon asked no questions, and it was this heroic absence
of curiosity, of surprise on his part, that more than anything else
impressed Theodore Racksole. How many hotel proprietors in the world,
Racksole asked himself, would have let that beef-steak and Bass go by
without a word of comment.

'From what date do you wish the purchase to take effect?' asked Babylon.

'Oh,' said Racksole lightly, 'it doesn't matter. Shall we say from
to-night?'

'As you will. I have long wished to retire. And now that the moment has
come--and so dramatically--I am ready. I shall return to Switzerland.
One cannot spend much money there, but it is my native land. I shall be
the richest man in Switzerland.' He smiled with a kind of sad amusement.

'I suppose you are fairly well off?' said Racksole, in that easy
familiar style of his, as though the idea had just occurred to him.

'Besides what I shall receive from you, I have half a million invested.'

'Then you will be nearly a millionaire?'

Felix Babylon nodded.

'I congratulate you, my dear sir,' said Racksole, in the tone of a judge
addressing a newly-admitted barrister. 'Nine hundred thousand pounds,
expressed in francs, will sound very nice--in Switzerland.'

'Of course to you, Mr Racksole, such a sum would be poverty. Now if one
might guess at your own wealth?' Felix Babylon was imitating the other's
freedom.

'I do not know, to five millions or so, what I am worth,' said Racksole,
with sincerity, his tone indicating that he would have been glad to give
the information if it were in his power.

'You have had anxieties, Mr Racksole?'

'Still have them. I am now holiday-making in London with my daughter in
order to get rid of them for a time.'

'Is the purchase of hotels your notion of relaxation, then?'

Racksole shrugged his shoulders. 'It is a change from railroads,' he
laughed.

'Ah, my friend, you little know what you have bought.'

'Oh! yes I do,' returned Racksole; 'I have bought just the first hotel
in the world.'

'That is true, that is true,' Babylon admitted, gazing meditatively at
the antique Persian carpet. 'There is nothing, anywhere, like my hotel.
But you will regret the purchase, Mr Racksole. It is no business of
mine, of course, but I cannot help repeating that you will regret the
purchase.'

'I never regret.'

'Then you will begin very soon--perhaps to-night.'

'Why do you say that?'

'Because the Grand Babylon i