An American Politician: A NovelCrawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
General
An American Politician: A Novel
Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
Political fiction; Politicians -- Fiction
"Enclosed please find Bank of England Post Note for your usual quarterly
honorarium, £1250. My firm will address you upon the use to be made of the
Proxies lately sent you for the ensuing election of officers of the
Pocahontas and Dead Man's Valley R. R., touching your possession of which
I beg to reiterate the importance of a more than Masonic discretion. I
apprehend that unless the scattered shares should have been quickly
absorbed for the purpose of obtaining a majority, these Proxies will
enable you to control the election of the proper ticket. If not, and if
the Leviathan should decline the overtures that will be made to him during
his summer visit to London, I should like your estimate of five thousand
shares more, to be picked up in the next three months, which will assure
our friends the control. Should the prospective figure be too high, we may
elect to sell out, after rigging the market for a boom.
"In either event there will be lots of pickings in the rise and fall of
the shares for the old joint account, which has been so profitable because
you have so skillfully covered up your tracks.
"Yours faithfully,"
"SAUNDERS GRABBLES."
"P. S. The expectations of the young lady about whom you inquire are
involved in such a tangle of conditions as could only have occurred to the
excited fancy of an old Anglo-Indian. He left about twenty lacs of rupees
in various bonds--G. I. P. and others--to his nephew, Ronald Surbiton, and
to his niece jointly, provided that they marry each other. If they do not,
one quarter of the estate is to go to the one who marries first, and the
remaining three quarters to the other. The estate is in the hands of
trustees, who pay an allowance to the heirs. In case they marry each
other, the said heirs have power to dispose by will of the inheritance.
Otherwise the whole of it reverts to the last survivor, and at his or her
death it is to be devoted to founding a home for superannuated
governesses."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account