The Napoleon of Notting Hill
spoiling the chances of cabs, omnibuses, railway stations, to disorganising half a city, to risking a kind of civil war? Whatever were your objects, were they that?"
Barker and Wilson looked at him admiringly; the King more admiringly still.
"Provost Buck," said Auberon, "you speak in public uncommonly well. I give you your point with the magnanimity of an artist. My scheme did not include the appearance of Mr. Wayne. Alas! would that my poetic power had been great enough."
"I thank your Majesty," said Buck, courteously but quickly. "Your Majesty's statements are always clear and studied: therefore I may draw a deduction. As the scheme, whatever it was, on which you set your heart did not include the appearance of Mr. Wayne, it will survive his removal. Why not let us clear away this particular Pump Street, which does interfere with our plans, and which does not, by your Majesty's own statement, interfere with yours."
"Caught out!" said the King, enthusiastically and quite impersonally, as if he were watching a cricket match.
"This man Wayne," continued Buck, "would be shut up by any doctors in England. But we
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