The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Man of Mark, by Anthony Hope

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: A Man of Mark

Author: Anthony Hope

Release Date: February 12, 2004 [eBook #11063]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MAN OF MARK***

E-text prepared by the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading
Team

A MAN OF MARK

BY

ANTHONY HOPE

AUTHOR OF "THE PRISONER OF ZENDA," "THE INDISCRETION OF THE DUCHESS,"
ETC.

1895

[Illustration: "_Stop!" I cried; "I shoot the first man who opens the
door_".--P 121]

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds,"

--FRANCIS BACON.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I. THE MOVEMENT AND THE MAN
II. A FINANCIAL EXPEDIENT
III. AN EXCESS OF AUTHORITY
IV. OVERTURES FROM THE OPPOSITION
V. I APPRECIATE THE SITUATION
VI. MOURONS POUR LA PATRIE!
VII. THE MINE IS LAID
VIII. JOHNNY CARR IS WILLFUL
IX. A SUPPER PARTY
X. TWO SURPRISES
XI. DIVIDING THE SPOILS
XII. BETWEEN TWO FIRES
XIII. I WORK UPON HUMAN NATURE
XIV. FAREWELL TO AUREATALAND
XV. A DIPLOMATIC ARRANGEMENT

CHAPTER I.

THE MOVEMENT AND THE MAN.

In the year 1884 the Republic of Aureataland was certainly not in a
flourishing condition. Although most happily situated (it lies on
the coast of South America, rather to the north--I mustn't be more
definite), and gifted with an extensive territory, nearly as big as
Yorkshire, it had yet failed to make that material progress which had
been hoped by its founders. It is true that the state was still in its
infancy, being an offshoot from another and larger realm, and having
obtained the boon of freedom and self-government only as recently as
1871, after a series of political convulsions of a violent character,
which may be studied with advantage in the well-known history of "The
Making of Aureataland," by a learned professor of the Jeremiah P.
Jecks University in the United States of America. This profound
historian is, beyond all question, accurate in attributing the chief
share in the national movement to the energy and ability of the
fir