it."

"Ay--when he'd done the deed! When did you show it him?" said Ashe,
impetuously.

"At Haggart--in August."

"<i>Et tu, Brute!</i>" said Ashe, turning away. "Well, that's done with. Now
the only thing to do is to face the music. I go home. Whatever can be
done to withdraw the book from circulation I shall, of course, do; but I
gather from this precious letter"--he held up the note which had been
enclosed in the parcel--"that some thousands of copies have already been
ordered by the booksellers, and a few distributed to 'persons in high
places.'"

"William," she said, in despair, catching his arm again--"listen! I
offered the man two hundred pounds only yesterday to stop it."

Ashe laughed.

"What did he reply?"

"He said it was impossible. Fifty copies had been already issued."

"The review copies, no doubt. By next week there will be, I should say,
five thousand in the shops. Your man understands his business, Kitty.
This is the kind of puff preliminary he has been scattering about."

And with sparkling eyes he handed to her a printed slip containing an
outline of the book for the information of the booksellers.

It drew attention to the extraordinary interest of the production as a
painting of the upper class by the hand of one belonging to its inmost
circle. "People of the highest social and political importance will be
recognized at once; the writer handles cabinet ministers and their wives
with equal freedom, and with a touch betraying the closest and most
intimate knowledge. Details hitherto quite unknown to the public of
ministerial combinations and intrigues--especially of the feminine
influences involved--will be found here in their lightest and most
amusing form. A certain famous fancy ball will be identified without
difficulty. Scathing as some of the portraits are, the writer is by no
means merely cynical. The central figure of the book is a young and
rising statesman, whose aim and hopes are touched with a loving
hand--the charm of the portrait being only equalled by the venom with
which the writer assails those who have thwarted or injured his hero.
But our advice is simply--'Buy and Read!' Conjecture will run wild about
the writer. All we can say is that the most romantic or interesting
surmise that can possibly be formed will fall far short of the reality."

"The beast is a shrewd beast!" said Ashe, as he raised himself from the
stooping position in which he had been following the sente