Front matter

Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See https://archive.org/details/servantofpublic00hope

A SERVANT OF THE PUBLIC

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

A MAN OF MARK

MR. WITT'S WIDOW

FATHER STAFFORD

A CHANGE OF AIR

HALF A HERO

THE PRISONER OF ZENDA

THE GOD IN THE CAR

THE DOLLY DIALOGUES

COMEDIES OF COURTSHIP

THE CHRONICLES OF COUNT ANTONIO

THE HEART OF PRINCESS OSRA

PHROSO

SIMON DALE

RUPERT OF HENTZAU

THE KING'S MIRROR

QUISANTÉ

"I SHOULD BE RATHER AFRAID NEVER TO CHANGE TO A PERSON. IT WOULD MAKE HIM MEAN SO TERRIBLY MUCH TO ONE, WOULDN'T IT?"

PAGE 62

A SERVANT OF THE PUBLIC

BY

ANTHONY HOPE

WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS BY HAROLD PERCIVAL, A.R.E.

METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON

First Published in 1905

CONTENTS

Chapter Page

I. Muddock and Mead 1

II. First Impressions 15

III. An Arrangement for Sunday 29

IV. By Way of Precaution 43

V. A Day in the Country 55

VI. Away with the Ribbons! 70

VII. Under the Nosegay 86

VIII. The Legitimate Claimant 102

IX. Renunciation: A Drama 118

X. The Licence of Virtue 133

XI. What is Truth? 149

XII. At Close Quarters 164

XIII The Heroine fails 179

XIV. As Mr. Flint said 194

XV. The Man Upstairs 210

XVI. Morality smiles 227

XVII. At Sea and in Port 243

XVIII. The Play and the Part 257

XIX. Collateral Effects 270

XX. The Ways divide 286

XXI. What does it Mean? 301

XXII. Other Worlds 316

XXIII. The Most Natural Thing 332

XXIV. "A Good Sight" 348

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

"I SHOULD BE RATHER AFRAID NEVER TO CHANGE TO A PERSON. IT WOULD MAKE HIM MEAN SO TERRIBLY MUCH TO ME, WOULDN'T IT?" Frontispiece

"SOMEBODY'LL BE GLAD TO SEE ME, ANYHOW," HE ENDED, WITH A LAUGH 224

THE CONTRACT PUNCTILIOUSLY SIGNED BY ALL THE PARTIES AND WITNESSED BY JANET THE MAID ... THEY HAD OPENED A BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE 301

WALKED IN SILENCE SIDE BY SIDE 360

A Servant of the Public