The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-11-16

EW men have the goal of their
ambition in sight at thirty eight

EW men have the goal of their
ambition in sight at thirty eight
years of age. But Sir Percy
carlyon had, when he was appointed
first secretary of the British embassy
at Washington, with a very well-ar-
ranged scheme worked out by which,
at the end of foul years, he was to
succeed his uncle, Lord Baudesert, the
present ambassador. This realization
of his dreams came to Sir Percy on a
December afternoon dark and sharp,
as he tramped over the frozen ground
through the stark and leafless woods,
which may yet be found close to Wash
ington.
He was a great walker, this thin,
sinewy Englishman with a sun-browned
skin, burnt by many summers in India
n sweather-beaten by many winters
in the ~snowboufid depths of the Bal
kans. He had the straight features and
clear, scintillant eyes which are the
marks of race among his kind, but no
one would have been more surprised
than Sir Percy II he had been called
handsome. Within him, on this bleak
December afternoon, was a sensation
strange to him after many years: the
~ VI AiOPO RAta ~ vi " -
stopped in the silent heart of the
woods, and, leaning against the gnarled
trunk of a live oak, thrust his hands
into his pockets and glanced, with
Frightening eyes, towards the west. A
faint, rosy line upon the horizon was
visible through the naked woods; all
else in sky and earth was dun-colored.
To Sir Percy Carlyon this thread of
r-odfornna xryor N n~or;eo 80 kh1 <<..,o
This was, to him, almost the first mo-
ment of retrospection since the day,
two months before, when, in the prime
minister's rooms in Downing street, a
new life in a new country opened be-
fore him. Since then-amid the off,
cial and personal preparations neces-
sary to take up his post, his sever
days on the Atlantic, during which he
worked hard on pressing business. the
necessary first visits upon his arrival
Sir Percy had scarcely enjoyed an hour
to himself. He had found the embassy
overwhelmed with affairs, about which
his uncle, Lord Bandesert, coolly re-
fused TO bother himself, but which Sir
Percy, as q practical felt obliged
to take up and carry through. That
day, only, had he, by hard and system
attic work, caught up what was called
by Lord Baudesert, with q grin, the
unfinished business" at the British
embassy, but which really meant the
neglected business of a lazy, clever old
diplomatist who never didytoday what
he could put or until tomorrow.
Lord Baudesert had been many years
at Washington, and had a thorough
knowledge not only of the affairs Of
the American people, but of their,tem-
per, their prejudices and their passions.
In an emergency his natural abilities,
and a kind of superhuman adroitness
which he possessed, together with the
vast fund of knowledge that he had
accumulated, but rarely used, made
him a valuable person to the Foreign
Office. However, as soon as the emer-
gency passed Lord Baudesert returned
to his usual occupation of studying the
American newspapers and anything
else which could add to the already
vast stock of knowledge which he pos
sessed, put rarely condescended to use.
The embassy was presided over by
Lord Baudesert's widowed sister, Mrs.
vereker, an amiable old sheep of the
early Victorian type. Then there, were
three lamb-like Vereker girls. Jane,
Sarah and Isabella, all likewise early
Victorian, who regarded their uncle as
"a combination of Bluebeard and Solo
mon, and altogether the most impor-
tant and the most terrifying person on
this planet. Lord Baudesert's favorite