Explore "The Necessary Resources" by Antonio Hope on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The affair had three obvious results: the marriage of Prince Julian, Sir Henry Shum's baronetcy, and the complete renovation of Lady Craigennoch's town house. Its other effects, if any, were more obscure.
By accident of birth and of political events Prince Julian was a Pretender, one of several gentlemen who occupied that position in regard to the throne of an important European country: by a necessity of their natures Messrs Shum & Byers were financiers: thanks to a fall in rents and a taste for speculation Lady Craigennoch was hard put to it for money and had become a good friend and ally of Mr Shum; sometimes he allowed her to put a finger into one of his pies and draw out a little plum for herself. Byers, hearing one day of his partner's acquaintance with Lady Craigennoch, observed, "She might introduce us to Prince Julian." Shum asked no questions, but obeyed; that was the way to be comfortable and to grow rich if you were Mr Byers' partner. The introduction was duly effected; the Prince wondered vaguely, almost ruefully, what these men expected to get out of him. Byers asked himself quite as dolefully whether anything could be made out of an indolent, artistic, lazy young man like the Prince; Pretenders such as he served only to buttress existing Governments.