Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) IN BRIEF AUTHORITY BY F. ANSTEY AUTHOR OF "VICE VERSA," "A FALLEN IDOL," "THE PARIAH," "THE GIANT'S ROBE," "LYRE AND LANCET," "THE BRASS BOTTLE," "THE TALKING HORSE AND OTHER TALES," "SALTED ALMONDS," ETC. LONDON SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1915 [All rights reserved] Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. at the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh To Peggy AUTHOR'S NOTE It may be as well to mention here that the whole of this book was planned, and at least three-fourths of it actually written, in those happy days, which now seem so pathetically distant, when we were still at peace--days when, to all but a very few, so hideous a calamity as a World-War seemed a danger that had passed for the present, and might never recur; when even those few could hardly have foreseen that England would be so soon compelled to fight for her very existence against the most efficient and deadly foe it has ever been her lot to encounter. But, as the central idea of this story happens to be inseparably connected with certain characters and incidents of German origin, I have left them unaltered--partly because it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to substitute any others, but mainly because I cannot bring myself to believe that the nursery friends of our youth could ever be regarded as enemies. F. ANSTEY. _September 1915._ CONTENTS I. "THE SKIRTS OF HAPPY CHANCE" II. RUSHING TO CONCLUSIONS III. FINE FEATHERS IV. CROWNED HEADS V. DIGNITY UNDER DIFFICULTIES VI. CARES OF STATE VII. A GAME THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND VIII. "A STEED THAT KNOWS HIS RIDER" IX. THE PLEASURES OF THE TABLE X. THE BLONDE BEAST XI. A WAY OUT XII. UNWELCOME ANNOUNCEMENTS XIII. WHAT THE PIGEON SAID XIV. BAG AND BAGGAGE XV. "RIVEN WITH VAIN ENDEAVOUR" XVI. "A CLOUD THAT'S DRAGONISH" XVII. THE REWARD OF VALOUR XVIII. A PREVIOUS ENGAGEMENT XIX. SERVANTS OF THE QUEEN XX. AT THE END OF HER TETHER XXI. "WHOSE LIGHTS ARE FLED, WHOSE GARLANDS DEAD" XXII. SQUARING ACCOUNTS EPILOGUE IN BRIEF AUTHORITY CHAPTER I "THE SKIRTS OF HAPPY CHANCE" On a certain afternoon in March Mrs. Sidney Stimpson (or rather Mrs. Sidney Wibberley-Stimpson, as a recent legacy from a distant relative had provided her with an excuse for styling herself) was sitting alone in her drawing-room at "Inglegarth," Gablehurst. "Inglegarth" was the name she had chosen for the house on coming to live there some years before. What it exactly meant she could not have explained, but it sounded distinguished and out of the common, without being reprehensibly eccentric. Hence the choice.