The Salt Of The Earth by Fred M. White

Denne's offices were a dominant note in the architectural harmony of the Thames Embankment. The building stood out light and graceful as some Venetian palace, the whole structure being of marble, most of which had been imported. There were well-kept walks and gardens and lawns trim and velvety, as if they had been laid for a century. The ground floor was principally devoted to business purposes, and above were the magnificent suite of rooms where Denne kept his art treasures, and were he entertained his friends in his own lavish fashion. To a certain extent he had followed the lead of the New York millionaires in Fifth-avenue, but there was a note of originality which inspired everything that Denne did. He had his own swimming bath and tennis court; its fact, he had enjoyed the building of his palace, and was tired of it long before the last nail had been driven into the last carpet. In his cynical way he was wont to declare that he had built the place to oblige his friends, though who his friends were he would have found it difficult to say.

Denne was seated in his private office playing with his correspondence. Despite his many interests, and the score of irons he had in the fire, he was by no means a hard-working man, for, like most of his class, he had the gift of picking out the right men to do the work for him. Without this attribute it is impossible for a man to be a multi-millionaire.