is design
with singular freshness and originality."

On the day when that notice appeared, Mr. Fortune, who considered that
his mind was--or would be supposed to be--the directing mind referred
to, had repeated his promise of partnership, first made when the
enterprise began to show unexpected signs of responding to Sabre's
enthusiasm. "Very good, Sabre, very good indeed. I am bound to say
capital. I may tell you, as your father probably told you, that it was
always understood between him and me that you should be taken into
partnership if you showed signs of promise. Unquestionably you do. When
you have brought the publishing into line with our established
departments we will go into the matter and--" he made one of his nearest
approaches to pleasantry--"take steps to restore the house of Sabre in
some part to its ancient glories in the firm--in some part."

And when Sabre expressed his gratification, "Enough, I have decided."

In 1912 Sabre felt that he had now brought the publishing into line with
the established departments. He had emphasized the firm's reputation in
this activity by the considerable success that attended two textbooks
bearing (one in collaboration) his own name. "Sabre and Owen's
Elementary Mathematics" had been notably taken up by the schools.
"Sabre's Modern History", shunned by the public schools in accordance
with their principle of ignoring all history mellowed by fewer than
three thousand years, had been received enthusiastically by the lesser
schools wherein was then dawning the daring idea of presenting to the
rising generation some glimmering conception of the constitutional and
sociological facts into which it was arising.

The tributes with which this slim primer of one hundred and fifty pages
for eighteen pence had been greeted inspired Sabre towards a much bolder
work, on which the early summer of 1912 saw him beginning and into which
he found himself able to pour in surprising volume thoughts and feelings
which he had scarcely known to be his until the pen and the paper began
to attract them. The title he had conceived alone stirred them in his
mind and drew them from it as a magnet stirs and draws iron filings.
"England." Just "England." He could see it printed and published and
renowned as "Sabre's England." Kings were to enter this history but
incidentally, as kings have in fact ever been but incidental to
England's history. It was to be just "England"; the England of the
Engli