So the Duc de Mersch started the _Hour_.

The _Hour_ was to extol the Duc de Mersch's moral purpose; to pat the Government's back; influence public opinion; and generally advance the cause of the System for the Regeneration of the Arctic Regions.
I tell the story rather flippantly, because I heard it from Callan, and because it was impossible to take him seriously.

Besides, I was not very much interested in the thing itself.

But it did interest me to see how deftly she pumped him--squeezed him dry.
I was even a little alarmed for poor old Cal.

After all, the man had done me a service; had got me a job.