’And I have had your reply.  I have come to you because you have expressed a wish for an interview, but I do not see that it will do any good.’

’You are very kind for coming, indeed, Sir Marmaduke, very kind.  I thought I might explain something to you about my income.’

‘Can you tell me that you have any permanent income?’

‘It goes on regularly from month to month;’ Sir Marmaduke did not feel the slightest respect for an income that was paid monthly.  According to his ideas, a gentleman’s income should be paid quarterly, or perhaps half-yearly.  According to his view, a monthly salary was only one degree better than weekly wages ‘and I suppose that is permanence,’ said Hugh Stanbury.

‘I cannot say that I so regard it.’

’A barrister gets his, you know, very irregularly.  There is no saying when he may have it.’

’But a barrister’s profession is recognised as a profession among gentlemen, Mr Stanbury.’

’And is not ours recognised?  Which of us, barristers or men of literature, have the most effect on the world at large?  Who is most thought of in London, Sir Marmaduke, the Lord Chancellor or the Editor of the “Jupiter"?’

‘The Lord Chancellor a great deal,’ said Sir Marmaduke, quite dismayed by the audacity of the question.

‘By no means, Sir Marmaduke,’ said Stanbury, throwing out his hand before him so as to give the energy of action to his words.  ’He has the higher rank.  I will admit that.’

‘I should think so,’ said Sir Marmaduke.

‘And the larger income.’

‘Very much larger, I should say,’ said Sir Marmaduke, with a smile.

‘And he wears a wig.’

‘Yes he wears a wig,’ said Sir Marmaduke, hardly knowing in what spirit to accept this assertion.

‘And nobody cares one brass button for him or his opinions,’ said Stanbury, bringing down his hand heavily on the little table for the sake of emphasis.

‘What, sir?’

‘If you’ll think of it, it is so.’

‘Nobody cares for the Lord Chancellor!’ It certainly is the fact that gentlemen living in the Mandarin Islands do think more of the Lord Chancellor, and the Lord Mayor, and the Lord-Lieutenant, and the Lord Chamberlain, than they whose spheres of life bring them into closer contact with those august functionaries.  ’I presume, Mr Stanbury, that a connection with a penny newspaper makes such opinions as these almost a necessity.’

’Quite a necessity, Sir Marmaduke.  No man can hold his own in print, now-a-days, unless he can see the difference between tinsel and gold.’

‘And the Lord Chancellor, of course, is tinsel.’

’I do not say so.  He may be a great lawyer and very useful.  But his lordship, and his wig, and his woolsack, are tinsel in comparison with the real power possessed by the editor of a leading newspaper.  If the Lord Chancellor were to go to bed for a month, would he be much missed?’