Priest:  Merely religious.  Besides my sister is the Dean’s favourite niece.  And I am her favourite brother.  My sister takes much interest in art.  She has just painted a really exquisite tea-cosy for me.  Of course the Dean ultimately settles these questions of national funerals, Hence...

At this point the invisible orchestra began to play “God save the King.”

Woman:  Oh!  What a bore!

Then nearly all the lights were extinguished.

Waiter:  Please, gentlemen!  Gentlemen, please!

Priest:  You quite understand, Mr. Docksey, that I merely gave these family details in order to substantiate my statement that I may be able to arrange something.  By the way, if you would care to have a typescript of my sermon to-morrow for the Record, you can have one by applying at the vestry.

Waiter:  Please, gentlemen!

Man:  So good of you.  As regards the burial in Westminster Abbey, I think that the Record will support the project.  I say I think.

Priest:  Maria Lady Rowndell will be grateful.

Five-sixths of the remaining lights went out, and the entire company followed them.  In the foyer there was a prodigious crush of opera cloaks, silk hats, and cigars, all jostling together.  News arrived from the Strand that the weather had turned to rain, and all the intellect of the Grand Babylon was centred upon the British climate, exactly as if the British climate had been the latest discovery of science.  As the doors swung to and fro, the stridency of whistles, the throbbing of motor-cars, and the hoarse cries of inhabitants of box seats mingled strangely with the delicate babble of the interior.  Then, lo! as by magic, the foyer was empty save for the denizens of the hotel who could produce evidence of identity.  It had been proved to demonstration, for the sixth time that week, that in the metropolis of the greatest of Empires there is not one law for the rich and another for the poor.

Deeply affected by what he had overheard, Priam Farll rose in a lift and sought his bed.  He perceived clearly that he had been among the governing classes of the realm.

* * * * *

CHAPTER IV

A Scoop

Within less than twelve hours after that conversation between members of the governing classes at the Grand Babylon Hotel, Priam Farll heard the first deep-throated echoes of the voice of England on the question of his funeral.  The voice of England issued on this occasion through the mouth of the Sunday News, a newspaper which belonged to Lord Nasing, the proprietor of the Daily Record.  There was a column in the Sunday News, partly concerning the meeting of Priam Farll and a celebrated star of the musical comedy stage at Ostend.  There was also a leading