"Then why so familiar?"
"My dear," I explained, "that is the point. Once get your name in the papers at the end of a two-column letter and you are the friend of all the world—it gives one an entrée to the castle of the Duke and the cottage of the crofter."
"Even before you've written it?"
"I have written it!"
"Oh, how splendid! Where?"
"In here," I said, tapping the best bit of my head.
"Oh, that!" And then, pensively: "Next time Mary Jane has a brainstorm, I'll tell her to call you 'Charley.' Poor girl!"
"I don't think you quite appreciate," I remarked.
"I don't. What exactly do we stand to gain?"
"There's the rub. Not lucre. Perish the thought! But one begins to be a power, an influence. People whisper in the Tube, 'Who's that?' 'That! Don't you know? Why Him—He! The man who is making the Government a laughing-stock. The man who holds the Empire in the palm of his hand. The man who——'"