Exquisite as was his breeding, Lord Benthorpe betrayed a very genuine enthusiasm; and when Mr Burden had reached the climax of his harangue, the statesman was tapping his fingers with such rapidity as to suggest the antique rattle or the buzzer of modern times. He looked up as Mr Burden ended and said: “Do you know, do you know, Mr Barnett?” Mr Burden replied that his son was very intimate with Mr Barnett and his friends, but that he himself had never met him. Then Lord Benthorpe described in some detail the vision which Mr Barnett had conceived. He told him how frequently Mr Barnett had come to him at Placton and in town, to discuss the possibilities of the M’Korio; of how, more than once, a syndicate had nearly been formed, but how they each felt, he and Mr Barnett and a group of other men, the necessity of more knowledge. That solid knowledge they had now acquired. Greatly as he admired Mr Barnett’s organising power, and much as he respected, nay loved, his ardent patriotism, he had mistrusted the visionary until he had heard the practical man. And now (Lord Benthorpe concluded) there was nothing between them all and the creation of a mighty province, save such few meetings, one with the other, as the formalities towards the formation of a syndicate required. He would beg Mr Barnett or Mr Harbury to write to Mr Burden, and they would meet, and the thing should be done. As is necessary in business, the two men went over the ground again seven or eight times, careful to add nothing to their former conclusions, and before half-past one the future was fairly clear. Thus, thus was Mr Burden decided. I that write this love my country, but I loved him too; and I could weep to think that, in her profit from his own action, he profited nothing; but only died. CHAPTER VII Lord Benthorpe’s descent and training, of which my readers have received an account, forbade him to exhibit haste in his further dealings with Mr Burden. His long administrative experience in the Orient, with which these papers have already rendered the Anglo-Saxon race familiar, equally forbade him to leave his associates and friends long ignorant of Mr Burden’s views. He wrote to Mr Barnett immediately after Mr Burden’s departure from Placton, and was charmed to discover, in the reply, that the Empire Builder was not so wrapt in his dreams as to forget that a certain delay in money matters is the mark of good birth. Indeed Mr Barnett advised that several weeks should pass before the matter was mentioned again.