MR. PETRE [Illustration: _Mr. Petre wondering who or what he may have been._] MR. PETRE _A novel by_ HILAIRE BELLOC _Illustrated by_ G. K. CHESTERTON [Illustration] Robert M. McBride & Company NEW YORK MCMXXV COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY PUBLISHED AUGUST 1925 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA =Dedication= To All Poor Gentlemen ILLUSTRATIONS Mr. Petre wondering who or what he may have been _Frontispiece_ PAGE “... As though he were a Unicorn” 11 “... And the two ex-Lord-Chancellors agreed” 27 Mrs. Cyril leaping to the telephone 37 His Grace the Proprietor of the “Messenger” conferring the Order of the Boot on Mr. Batterby, of Golder’s Green in the County of Middlesex 52 Sir Jeremiah Walton, God’s servant 57 Minatory but Patient Admonishment of the Ignoble Algernon by Breeches of Bolter’s Club, St. James’ (S.W.1) 62 “... Spectacles adorning a face like the full moon” 69 “His forehead witnessed to a lifetime of profound thought, his white beard to careful grooming” 72 The Partners 89 “Exactly. I quite understand” 99 Dada Beeston (Dorothea Madua, second and younger daughter of Henry, 10th Baron Beeston, of Beeston Abbey, Beeston, Rutlandshire; and of Desirée Waldschwein, his wife) 131 “One had chosen Public Service, the other--Affairs” 138 “He used to think in three figures; he was now thinking in five” 144 Young Mr. Cassleton, growing acquainted with the World of Affairs 150 The Public discovering no small appetite for the Debentures at 8% 173 “He had decided” 189 The Great Specialist wrote:--“Special circumstances: A Bastard” 199 The second and more jovial Great Specialist, Sir William Bland 208