The old man was off to Yarmouth long before his guests were astir, for a
fever of haste was upon him. He returned in the evening, and until
Saturday he was employed with his beautiful secretary in making the most
lordly preparations for the great meeting--the first of the series which
was to revolutionize rich people's conceptions of duty and necessity.
A very brilliant company assembled; the old man was an artist in his
way, and he had spread his lures with consummate tact. How on earth he
got hold of eminent pressmen, I cannot tell; but then, eminent pressmen,
like the rest of our world, are distinctly susceptible to the
blandishments of amiable millionaires. Sir John Rooby, the ex-Lord
Mayor, appeared in apoplectic importance; Lady Glendower, who had
expended a fortune on the conversion of the Siamese, also waited with
acute curiosity; every name on every card there was known more or less
to Secretaries, to Missionary Societies, to begging-letter writers--to
all the people who run on the track of wealth. The great saloon, which
reached from the front, right across the mansion to the windows that
overlooked the park, was filled fairly; and Ferrier was not a little
perturbed by the sight of his audience.
Mr. Cassall soon ended all suspense by coming to the point in his quick
fashion. (He would not have succeeded as a parliamenteer, for he had a
most uncultivated habit of never using forty words where five would
serve.
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