So the impending outrage—for all present felt that these notes presaged an outrage—was treated lightly enough, and the question, serious though it was felt to be, might well have given place to topics less exciting, when a buzz of conversation arose at the lower end of the table.
"Exactly the same," came Miss Salome Hohsmann's voice, "as the one father received!"
She was observed to be passing something to her neighbour—Mr. Sheard. He examined it curiously, and passed it on to Mrs. Lacey. Thus, from hand to hand it performed a circuit of the table and came to Julius Rohscheimer.
"That's one of 'em!" He threw it down upon the cloth—a small, square correspondence card. It bore the words:
"£1,000,000 is required by His Majesty's Government, immediately, in order to found an aerial service commensurate with Great Britain's urgent requirements. A fund for the purpose (under the patronage of the Marquess of Evershed and the Lord Mayor) has been opened by the Gleaner."
At the foot was a seal, designed in the form of two triangles crossed.
"Whose is this?" continued Rohscheimer, and turned the card over.
He read what was neatly type-written upon the other side, and his gross, empurpled face was seen to change, to assume a patchy greyness.
The superscription was:
"To Baron Hague, Sir Leopold Jesson, Messrs. Julius Rohscheimer, John Jacob Oppner, and Antony Elschild.