[Transcriber's Note: Chapter numbering is as in the original text, so there are two Chapter XIs.]
CHAPTER I
'I hold the world but as the world
A stage where every man must play a part.'
—Shakespeare.
It is four o'clock, and —— Street is wearing a very deserted appearance although it is July. The cab-drivers are more or less fast asleep in attitudes far from suggesting comfort, the sentries on guard at —— Palace look almost suffocated in their bearskins, and a comparative quiet is reigning over the great metropolis.
'Do you know, Helmdon,' says Jimmy Dalrymple. 'I'm nearly done;' these two are seated in the bow window of a well-known club.
'You don't mean it, what!' replies Helmdon, better known as Chubby.
'I do, all the same,' says Jimmy, testily, 'heat, money, everything, in fact!'
'That comes of racing, my good boy,' this from Chubby, in a sort of I-told-you-so tone.