k he was
compelled to do became loathsome to him, and bred a spirit of discontent
and rebellion. The further news of Clive's exploits in India, coming at
long intervals, set wild notions beating in Desmond's head, and made him
long passionately for a change. At times he thought of running away: his
father had run away and carved out a successful career, why should not he
do the same? But he had never quite made up his mind to cut the knot.

Meanwhile it became known in Market Drayton that Clive had returned to
England. Rumor credited him with fabulous wealth. It was said that he
drove through London in a gold coach, and outshone the king himself in
the splendor of his attire. No report was too highly colored to find easy
credence among the simple country folk. Clive was indeed rich: he had a
taste for ornate dress, and though neither so wealthy nor so gaily
appareled as rumor said, he was for a season the lion of London society.
The directors of the East India Company toasted him as "General" Clive,
and presented him with a jeweled sword as a token of their sense of his
services on the Coromandel coast.

No one suspected at the time that his work was of more than local
importance and would have more far-reaching consequences than the success
of a trading company. Clive had, in fact, without knowing it, laid the
foundations of a vast empire.

At intervals during the two years, scraps of news about Clive filtered
through to his birthplace. His father had left the neighborhood, and
Styche Hall was now in the hands of a stranger, so that Desmond hardly
dared to hope that he would have an opportunity of seeing his idol. But,
information having reached the court of directors that all was not going
well in India, their eyes turned at once to Clive as the man to set
things right. They requested him to return to India as Governor of Fort
St. David, and, since a good deal of the trouble was caused by quarrels
as to precedence between the king's and the Company's officers, they
strengthened his hands by obtaining for him a lieutenant colonel's
commission from King George.

Clive was nothing loath to take up his work again. He had been somewhat
extravagant since his arrival in England; great holes had been made in
the fortune he had brought back; and he was still a young man, full of
energy and ambition. What was Desmond's ecstasy, then, to learn that his
hero, on the eve of his departure, had accepted an invitation to the t