The estates are mortgaged three deep, and will not hold
out a year. The shares of the Millionnaire's Hotel and the Poor Man's Bank
in the B----y are worthless. Denslow's railroad schemes have absorbed the
capital of those concerns."
"But he had three millions."
"Nominally. This palace has actually sunk his income."
"Madness!"
"Wisdom, if you will listen."
"I am all attention."
"The use of money is to create and hold power. Denslow was certain of the
popular and county votes; he needed only the aristocratic support, and the
A---- people would have made him Senator."
"Fool, why was he not satisfied with his money?"
"Do you call the farmer fool, because he is not satisfied with the soil,
but wishes to grow wheat thereon? Money is the soil of power. For much
less than a million one may gratify the senses; great fortunes are not for
sensual luxuries, but for those of the soul. To the facts, then. The
advent of this mysterious duke,--whom I doubt,--hailed by Denslow and
Honoria as a piece of wonderful good-fortune, has already shaken him and
ruined the _prestige_ of his wife. They are mad and blind."
"Tell me, in plain prose, the _how_ and the _why_."
"De Vere, you are dull. There are three hundred people in the rooms of the
Denslow Palace; these people are the 'aristocracy.
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