The Cabinet at home were on thorns lest the press--the vile Tory
organs--should get wind of the case and cap the blundering government of
Ireland with the almost equally gross mistake in diplomacy.

'We shall have the _Standard_ at us,' said the Premier.

'Far worse,' replied the Foreign Secretary. 'I shall have Brunow here in
a white passion to demand an apology and the recall of our man at
Constantinople.'

To accuse a well-known housebreaker of a burglary that he had not
committed, nor had any immediate thought of committing, is the very
luckiest stroke of fortune that could befall him. He comes out not alone
innocent, but injured. The persecutions by which bad men have assailed him
for years have at last their illustration, and the calumniated saint walks
forth into the world, his head high and his port erect, even though a
crowbar should peep out from his coat-pocket and the jingle of false keys
go with him as he went.

Far too astute to make the scandal public by the newspapers, Atlee only
hinted to his chief the danger that might ensue if the secret leaked out.
He well knew that a press scandal is a nine-day fever, but a menaced
publicity is a chronic malady that may go on for years.

The last lines of his letter were: 'I have made a curious and interesting
acquaintance--a certain Stephanotis Bey, governor of Scutari in Albania, a
very venerable old fellow, who was never at Constantinople till now. The
Pasha tells me in confidence that he is enormously wealthy. His fortune
was made by brigandage in Greece, from which he retired a few years ago,
shocked by the sudden death of his brother, who was decapitated at Corinth
with five others. The Bey is a nice, gentle-mannered, simple-hearted old
man, kind to the poor, and eminently hospitable. He has invited me down
to Prevesa for the pig-shooting. If I have your permission to accept the
invitation, I shall make a rapid visit to Athens, and make one more
effort to discover Speridionides. Might I ask the favour of an answer by
telegraph? So many documents and archives were stolen here at the time of
the fire of the Embassy, that, by a timely measure of discredit, we can
impair the value of all papers whatever, and I have already a mass of false
despatches, notes, and telegrams ready for publication, and subsequent
denial, if you advise it. In one of these I have imitated Walpole's style
so well that I scarcely think he will read it without misgivings. With so
mu