They were hardly quoted on the Stock Exchange--hardly known even--when I
took them up on the 1st of April last year. Where are they now? At 119!
And they will move on to 219 before the year ends. I have means of
information possessed by none besides me. I have a wire of my own laid
on to every Embassy house on the Continent; every _attaché_, every
dragoman is my correspondent, and more than one Crowned Head has
honoured me with the secrets of his last Council, or of his resolves on
War or Peace. I myself am a Power. I can make and unmake and ruin homes
as well as any Czar or Emperor.
But I bind the clients who trust me with bands of iron.