About This Book
People in London-not merely literary folk, but even those "higher social circles" to which a certain publisher, whose name-or race-it is hardly fair to mention, had so obsequiously climbed-often wondered whence had come the wealth that enabled him to maintain such an establishment, give such elaborate "parties," have so many automobiles, and generally make all that display which is so convincing to the modern mind. Of course they were not seriously concerned, because, so long as it is a party, and the chef is paid so much, and the wines are as old as they should be, not even the rarest blossom on the most ancient and distinguished genealogical tree cares whose party it is, or, indeed, with whom she dances. There is only one democracy, and that is controlled by gentlemen with names that hardly sound beautiful enough to mention in fairy tales-that democracy of money to which the fairest flower of our aristocracy now bows her coroneted head.
