f purple silk.

All these things were evidence of the careful upbringing and artistic
yearnings of the young man who "blended" for the eminent firm of
Messrs. Worrows, By Appointment to the King of Smyrna, His Majesty the
Emperor ---- (the blank stands for an exalted name which had been
painted out by the patriotic management of Worrows), and divers other
royalties.

The young man who sat in the exquisite chair, with his boots elevated
to and resting upon the olive-green leather of the rosewood
writing-table, had long since grown familiar with the magnificence in
which he moved and had his being. He sat chewing an expensive
paper-knife of ivory, not because he was hungry, but because he was
bored. He had entered into his kingdom brimful of confidence and with
unimagined thousands of pounds to his credit in the coffers of the
Midland and Somerset Bank.

He had brought with him a bright blue book, stoutly covered and
brassily locked, on which was inscribed the word "Schemes."

That book was filled with writing of a most private kind and of a
frenzied calculation which sprawled diagonally over pages, as for
example:

Buy up old houses . . . . . . . . . say 2,000 pounds.
Pull them down . . . . . . . . . . . say 500 pounds.
Erect erect 50 Grand Flats . . . . . say 10,000 pounds.
Paper, pante, windows, etc. . . . . say 1,000 pounds.
------
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,000 pounds.
50 Flats let at 80 pounds per annum. 40,000 lbs.
Net profit . . . . . . . . . . . . . say 50 per cent.

NOTE.--For good middel class familys steady steady people. By this
means means doing good turn to working classes solving houseing problem
and making money which can be distribbuted distribbutted to the poor.

Mr. Augustus Tibbetts, late of H.M. Houssa Rifles, was, as his
doorplate testified, the Managing Director of "Schemes, Ltd." He was a
severe looking young man, who wore a gold-rimmed monocle on his grey
check waistcoat and occasionally in his left eye. His face was of that
brick-red which spoke of a life spent under tropical suns, and when
erect he conveyed a momentary impression of a departed militarism.

He uncurled his feet from the table, and, picking up a letter, read it
through aloud--that is to say, he read certain words, skipped others,
and substituted private idioms for all he could not or would not
trouble to pronounce.

"Dear