Before many weeks there came to the London morning papers a telegram from the principal seaport of Gloria.
'His Excellency President Ericson, ex-Dictator of Gloria, has just landed with his young wife and his secretary, Mr. Hamilton, and has been received with acclamation by the populace everywhere. The Reactionary Government by whom he was exiled have been overthrown by a great rising of the military and the people. Some of the leaders have escaped across the frontier into Orizaba, the State to which they had been trying to hand over the Republic. The Dictator will go on at once to the capital, and will there reorganise his army, and will promptly move on to the frontier to drive back the invading force.'
There came, too, a private telegram from Helena to her father, concocted with a reckless disregard of the cost per word of a submarine message from South America to London.
'My darling Papa,—It is so glorious to be the wife of a patriot and a hero, and I am so happy, and I only wish you could be here.'
When Captain Sarrasin gets well enough, he and his wife will go out to Gloria, and it is understood that at the special request of Hamilton, and of some one else too, they will take Dolores Paulo out with them.
For which other reason, as for many more, we wish success and freedom, and stability and progress to the Republic of Gloria, and happiness to the Dictator, and to all whom he has in charge.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON THE DICTATOR.
'In Mr. McCarthy's novels we are always certain of finding humour, delicate characterisation, and an interesting story; but they are chiefly attractive, we think, by the evidence they bear upon every page of being written by a man who knows the world well, who has received a large and liberal education in the university of life. In "The Dictator" Mr. McCarthy is in his happiest vein. The life of London—political, social, artistic—eddies round us. We assist at its most brilliant pageants, we hear its superficial, witty, and often empty chatter, we catch whiffs of some of its finer emotions.... The brilliantly sketched personalities stand out delicately and incisively individualised. Mr. McCarthy's light handling of his theme, the alertness and freshness of his touch, are admirably suited to the picture he paints of contemporary London life.'—Daily News.
'"The Dictator" is bright, sparkling, and entertaining.... Few novelists are better able to describe the political and social eddies of contemporary society in the greatest city in the world than Mr. McCarthy; and this novel abounds in vivid and picturesque sidelights, drawn with a strong and simple touch.'—Leeds Mercury.