is for the _Hour_," I agreed.

"Ah!" he went on, "you're going to interview the Elective Grand
Duke...."

"We call him the Duc de Mersch," I interrupted, flippantly. It was a
matter of nuances. The Elective Grand Duke was a philanthropist and a
State Founder, the Duc de Mersch was the hero as financier.

"Of Holstein-Launewitz," Callan ignored. The titles slipped over his
tongue like the last drops of some inestimable oily vintage.

"I might have saved you the trouble. I'm going to see him myself."

"_You_," I italicised. It struck me as phenomenal and rather absurd that
everybody that I came across should, in some way or other, be mixed up
with this portentous philanthropist. It was as if a fisherman were
drawing in a ground line baited with hundreds of hooks. He had a little
offended air.

"He, or, I should say, a number of people interested in a philanthropic
society, have asked me to go to Greenland."

"Do they want to get rid of you?" I asked, flippantly. I was made to
know my place.

"My dear fellow," Callan said, in his most deliberate, most Olympian
tone. "I believe you're entirely mistaken, I believe ... I've been
informed that the Systeme Groenlandais is one of the healthiest places
in the Polar regions. There are interested persons who...."

"So I've heard," I interrupted, "but I can assure you I've heard nothing
but good of the Systeme and the ... and its philanthropists. I meant
nothing against them. I was only astonished that you should go to such a
place."

"I have been asked to go upon a mission," he explained, seriously, "to
ascertain what the truth about the Systeme really is. It is a new
country with, I am assured, a great future in store. A great deal of
English money has been invested in its securities, and naturally great
interest is taken in its affairs."

"So it seems," I said, "I seem to run upon it at every hour of the day
and night."

"Ah, yes," Callan rhapsodised, "it has a great future in store, a great
future. The Duke is a true philanthropist. He has taken infinite
pains--infinite pains. He wished to build up a model state, _the_ model
protectorate of the world, a place where perfect equality shall obtain
for all races, all creeds, and all colours. You would scarcely believe
how he has worked to ensure the happiness of the native races. He
founded the great society to protect the Esquimaux, the Society for the
Regeneration of the Arctic Regions--the S.R.A.R.--as you called i