The Philanderers

eagerly at a simile. Now Fielding came second to none in his scorn for the simile as an explanation, possibly because he was so well acquainted with its convenience. 'A fair

simile, applying it as a sort of skeleton k

being clearly foreseen from the first word of the preface. But once fairly started the book throws the writer on one side and takes the lead, drags him, panting and protesting, after it, flings him down by-ways out of sight of his main road, tumbles him

uly ticketed at his elbow, in Drake's case Hugh Fielding

t was evident from his indifference to the bystanders that he expected no one. The more careless of these would have accounted him a complete stranger to the locality, the more observant an absentee who had just returned, for while his looks expressed isolation, one significant gesture

kade of masts; thence he looked across the water to the yellowing woods of Mount Edgcumbe, watched for a moment or so the brown sails of the fishing-smacks dancing a chassez-croisez in the Sound, and turned back to face the hill-side. A fellow-passenger, hustled past him by half a do

Stephen

s.

ped a persp

ve gone out on the tender, only I was late.

ered Drake, with

y along the quay until he came to an ang

aid, and he drew an oblong note-book a

rstand,' said Dr

have no o

who holds the forceps behind his ba

ittle notoriety will

ly out of place. The feeling, however, was quickly swallowed up in the satisfaction which

and made a note of the quotati

ith?' suggested Drake with a perfectly serious inqui

our readers,' he repl

hat paper do y

er hesitat

ye upon his questioner. He saw the lips join in a hard line, and be

Drake. 'Your editor makes a violent attack upon me, and then sends a

e attacks acted under a sense of responsibility, and he thought it only fair

ill leave him a margin of profit, only I don't seem to feel that I need make any defence. I have no objection to be i

ed, and made a no

-crusade, shall we call it?-but on what lines exactly I am, of course, ignorant. It will be better, consequently, that you should put

eeing that Drake was obdurate

Drake explained, 'but there were others concerned in it. Yo

that he had, and strenuously believed it-in the interests of his shareholders. Drake, on the other hand, and the Colonial Office, it should be added, were dispassionately indifferent to the question, for the very precise reason that they knew it could never be decided. There were doubts as to the exact sphere of British influence, and the doubts favoured Drake for the most part. Insul

s, and fall upon his enemy six weeks before he was expected-the true combination of daring and endurance that stamps the race current coin across the world! Economy also pleaded for Drake. But for him the country itself must have burned out the hornets' nest, and the tax-payer paid, and paid dearly. For there would have been talk of the

ns?' asked the reporte

res

n find a corner in it. I ho

ds developmen

oo; capital

ite newspapers. The sobriety of the binding caught his fancy. He picked it up, and read the gold-lettered title on the back-A Man of Influence. The stall-keeper recommended t

ling

well i

een publi

an three

d everything else b

his fir

enthusiastic customer, and saw a

sted with an outstretched forefinger a crimson volume explained by its ornamentation of a couple of assegais bound t

turning the book over and over in his hands, feeling its weight and looking incessantl

matter what the career in which it was to be won. Work he had classified according to the opportunities it afforded of public recognition; and his classification varied from day to day.

lect that Mallinson had ever considered literature as a means to his end. Long sojourning in the wilderness, moreover, had given Drake an exaggerated reverence for the printed page. He was inclined to set Mallinson on a pinnacle, and scourge himself at the foot of it for his earlier distrus

I before the

minute

the telegr

lishers. 'Have just reached England. Dine with me at eight to-morrow at the Grand Hotel'; an

rences and suggestions, difficult of comprehension to the traveller out of touch with modern developments. These, however, would only be the ornaments, but the flesh and blood of the stor

e reader and what he read. His surprise changed to amusement as he noticed Drake's face betray his perplexity and observed hi

ut fifty years of age with a large red face and a close

o crack?' Drake noticed a t

s abroad. I hardly cat

en with an ef

a clever

believe in my duty to my senses and the effectuation of me for ever and ever, Amen. The modern jargon! Tops

on his cushions with

ll, you have been out of the country and-and you can't help it, I suppose. You may laugh! P'raps you haven't got daughters

closed his eyes. Occasionally Drake would hear a muffled growl, and, looking

the passengers indiscriminately. 'Satire!

ensitive to miscomputations of his years, and felt disin

upon reminding him of the nursery-maid's ideal, the dandified breaker of hearts and bender of wills; an analytical hero too, who traced the sentence through the thought to the emotion, which originally prompted it; whence his su

s pelted with ridicule from the first chapter to the last, though for what particular fault Drake could not discover, unless it were for that of being a husband at all; so that the interloper in

lively imagination in the interweaving of the incidents. But altogether the book left with him a feeling of distaste, which was not allayed by the perception that he himself was caricatured in the pict

e trees bordering the park were black bars against the pure, colourless light, and their mingling foliage a frayed black ribbon st

ong breath of the

im to bring Conway,'