Once I had a King and a Dowager Empress staying here at the same time.

Imagine that!' 'A great honour, Mr Babylon.

But wherein lies the difficulty ?' 'Mr Racksole,' was the grim reply, 'what has become of your shrewdness--that shrewdness which has made your fortune so immense that even you cannot calculate it?
Do you not perceive that the roof which habitually shelters all the force, all the authority of the world, must necessarily also shelter nameless and numberless plotters, schemers, evil-doers, and workers of mischief?
The thing is as clear as day--and as dark as night.

Mr Racksole, I never know by whom I am surrounded.

I never know what is going forward.
Only sometimes I get hints, glimpses of strange acts and strange secrets.
You mentioned my servants.