You know whom I mean, of course?"
"Prince Shan!" Nigel exclaimed.
"Prince Shan of China," Lord Dorminster assented. "His coming links up
many things which had been puzzling me. I tell you, Nigel, what happens
during Prince Shan's visit will probably decide the destinies of this
country, and yet I wouldn't mind betting you a thousand to one that
there isn't a single official of the Government who has the slightest
idea as to why he is coming, or that he is coming at all."
"Do you know?" Nigel asked.
"I can only surmise. Let us leave Prince Shan for the moment, Nigel. Now
listen. You go about a great deal. What do people say about
me--honestly, I mean? Speak with your face to the light."
"They call you a faddist and a scaremonger," Nigel confessed, "yet there
are one or two, especially at the St. Philip's Club, diplomatists and
ambassadors whose place in the world has passed away, who think and
believe differently. You know, sir, that I am amongst them."
Lord Dorminster nodded kindly.
"Well," he said, "I fancy I am about to prove myself. Seven years ago,
it was," he went on reminiscently, "when the new National Party came
into supreme power. You know one of their first battle cries--'Down with
all secret treaties! Down with all secret diplomacy! Let nothing exist
but an honest commercial understanding between the different countries
of the world!' How Germany and Russia howled with joy! In place of an
English statesman with his country's broad interests at heart, we have
in Berlin and Petrograd half a dozen representatives of the great
industries, whose object, in their own words, is, I believe, to develop
friendly commercialism and a feeling of brotherhood between the nations.
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