"
They passed out into the street and strolled leisurely westwards. As
they crossed Trafalgar Square, a stream of newsboys from the Strand were
spreading in all directions. Nigel and his companion seemed suddenly
surrounded by placards, all with the same headlines. They paused to
read:
_TRIUMPH OF THE CHANCELLOR_
_HUGE REDUCTION OF THE NATIONAL DEBT_
_TOTAL ABOLITION OF THE INCOME TAX_
They walked on. Naida said nothing, although she shook her head a little
sorrowfully. Nigel glanced across the Square and down towards
Westminster.
"They will shout themselves hoarse there this afternoon," he groaned.
For the first time she betrayed her knowledge of coming events.
"It is amazing," she whispered, "for the writing on the wall is already
there."
CHAPTER XIX
Seated in one of the first tier boxes at the Albert Hall, in the
gorgeous but obsolete uniform of a staff officer in the Russian Imperial
Forces, Prince Karschoff, with Nigel on one side and Maggie on the
other, gazed with keen interest at the brilliant scene below and around.
The greatest city the world has ever known seemed in those days to have
entered upon an orgy of extravagance unprecedented in history. Every box
and every yard of dancing space on the floor beneath was crowded with
men and women in wonderful fancy costumes, the women bedecked with
jewels which eager merchants had brought together from every market of
the world; even the men, in their silks and velvets and ruffles,
carrying out the dominant note of wealth.
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