out a really good thing, to arrange his board as a
bouquet-maker does his flowers. The colours
and kinds, and sizes of the flowers must be
kept distinct, although blended in one; and the
description, occupation, and antecedents of those
who compose the other should be all
considered, arranged, and placed each in its due
proportion. Put in too much of any particular
ingredient, and you ruin the scheme.

What we now wanted was the country
gentleman element, a little more of the Indian
article, with a strong dash of the member of
parliament—the mixture would at least bear
two of the latter, and, therefore, I at once tried
to secure them.

But in these days of joint-stock company
speculations, a wealthy member of parliament
is pretty sure either to lock up his money and
keep out of every undertaking of the kind, or
else to have his price, and only to sell himself
to those who can pay what he asks. There was
a kind of half City man—a German by birth, but
who had, after long residence in England, become
a naturalised subject of Queen Victoria, changed
his family designation and set up for a highly
respectable Briton—whose name would help us
immensely, but I knew his price would be
something enormous. To get hold of some one that
knew him, and to offer this gentleman a good
round sum if he obtained his written consent to
joining the board, was easy enough. Ready
money I had none, and therefore was forced to
make my bargain in shares, of which I was to
have a very large slice as part of my share of the
promotion money.

Mr. Grass—his name when he came from
Leipsic twenty-five years ago, and set up as a
toyshop-keeper in a very humble way in Whitechapel,
was Gröeus—member of parliament for
Inverstone, director of the Universal Financial
Association, of the Cleveland Banking Corporation,
of the Discounting Credit Company, of
the South Junction Railway, and chairman of
the Lucknow Bank, was a typical man of a
class which ten years ago did not exist in
England. He had made a very large fortune
entirely by speculations in shares; and, having
started without fifty pounds of capital, a stranger
and a sojourner in the land, was now one of the
magnates of fashion (in a certain set, of course),
a member of the first assembly of gentlemen
in the world, and for whose name as a
director of any undertaking, the business world
of financial London was willing to pay any
price. In order to get a simple letter of
introduction to this individual, I had to promise
ten shares of my promotion fee, with ten
pounds paid upon each. This letter I enclosed
in one of my own, asking for an interview, at
such an hour, on such a day, and in such a
place, as Mr. Grass would find most convenient.
I received a reply in a week, written and signed,
not by the M.P. himself, but by his private
secretary, and saying very curtly that if I would
call the following day at half-past eight in the
morning, at his private residence, number 104,
Edinburgh-square, Mr. Grass would see me.

On the appointed day I was to a minute at
the place indicated in his letter. The square
was a new one, in one of the new quarters, of
a new district, in a new part of London. The
house, of course, was new, and everything in it
was new. I sent in my card, and—after being
left standing full ten minutes in the hall—was
shown into the dining-room, where the furniture
looked, if possible, newer than anything
I had yet seen, and the walls were covered from
top to bottom with pictures which smelt of
varnish. The bran-new marble clock on the chimney-
piece showed that it was a few minutes more
than half an hour, from the time I entered the
dining-room, until a half valet, half footman,
announced that, if I would step this way, Mr.
Grass would see me.

"This way" led to the great man's study.
Mr. Grass was a good-looking middle-aged
man, trying very hard to hide his German
pronunciation, which, however, appeared every
moment above the surface of his English.
Like most men who have risen from a low
to a wealthy position, he seemed always
afraid lest others should not pay him proper
respect, and his tone was, perhaps uncon-
sciously, overbearing and dictatorial. He
appeared to know the nature of the business I
had come upon, and at once gave me to
understand that it was hopeless to think of getting
him, the great Mr. Grass, to join the direction
of any new company; but when I talked of
"making it a matter of business" with him
(which is City English for paying a good round
sum), and showed him the conditional consent
of Lord Dunstraw, as well as of Mr. Wood, and
the two bank directors, he changed his language,
and said he would think it over, and let me
know. The earl's name charmed him, but the
lucre charmed him still more.

From my club, I at once despatched a note
to Mr. Grass, binding myself, if he would agree
to act as a director of our board, that I would,
on the day I received my promotion money,
hand him five hundred pounds in cash, and a
thousand pounds in shares of the company.
To this I received a speedy answer, saying
that the M.P. agreed to my terms; but that I
must further give him an undertaking that,
if the Rio Grande and Mexico Grand Junction
Railway Company was obliged to go
to any of the finance companies to be brought
out, that the undertaking of which he was a
director—the Universal Financial Association—
should have the refusal of the job. Of course,
I knew that this would be merely putting a few
hundred more pounds in Mr. Grass's pocket;
but, as I had no objection to offer, I at once
wrote back, that, in this matter, he should have
his own way; and upon this, he sent me his
written agreement to join the direction of our
company.

There could now be little doubt but what
our undertaking would prove a success. The
same day that Mr. Grass consented to join the
board, I obtained another director, in the person
of a retired Indian civil servant, who was known