Page:The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman.djvu/248

 or a railway magnate or the keeper of a shop. . . If one had a favour to ask, one quite literally did not know whom to approach. And they were always changing. . . “No, Mr. Deepe,” I said, “some enter society through politics, others enter politics through society; but no man ever rose to the top of the political tree—and stayed there—without backing”. ..

And, so far as I could, I shewed him how it should be done and who were the people he must get to know. Quite methodically I set him to work; and I really took a great deal of trouble about him. Connie Maitland has the sublime assurance to pretend that she got him his knighthood, but on a point like that Sir Appleton himself is surely the most reliable witness. . . I helped him in a hundred ways; he is quite reasonably well-known now. . . When the bomb-shell first descended from Morecambe, I thought at once of him. In such a business there must be scores of openings for young men of character and ability, accustomed to command; and, say what you like, the presence of those whom for want of a better word I will call “well-connected” does help to lift commerce out of the ruck. . . Unhappily Sir Appleton was abroad at the time, and that was really why we chose Menton, which truly