Chapter I: Front Matter

MR. PETRE

MR. PETRE

_A novel by_

HILAIRE BELLOC

_Illustrated by_

G. K. CHESTERTON

Robert M. McBride & Company
NEW YORK MCMXXV

COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY

PUBLISHED
AUGUST
1925

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

=Dedication=

To All Poor Gentlemen

ILLUSTRATIONS

Mr. Petre wondering who or what he may have
been _Frontispiece_

PAGE
“... As though he were a Unicorn” 11

“... And the two ex-Lord-Chancellors agreed” 27

Mrs. Cyril leaping to the telephone 37

His Grace the Proprietor of the “Messenger”
conferring the Order of the Boot on Mr. Batterby,
of Golder’s Green in the County of Middlesex 52

Sir Jeremiah Walton, God’s servant 57

Minatory but Patient Admonishment of the Ignoble
Algernon by Breeches of Bolter’s Club,
St. James’ (S.W.1) 62

“... Spectacles adorning a face like the full
moon” 69

“His forehead witnessed to a lifetime of profound
thought, his white beard to careful grooming” 72

The Partners 89

“Exactly. I quite understand” 99

Dada Beeston (Dorothea Madua, second and younger
daughter of Henry, 10th Baron Beeston, of Beeston
Abbey, Beeston, Rutlandshire; and of Desirée
Waldschwein, his wife) 131

“One had chosen Public Service, the other--Affairs” 138

“He used to think in three figures; he was now
thinking in five” 144

Young Mr. Cassleton, growing acquainted with
the World of Affairs 150

The Public discovering no small appetite for the
Debentures at 8% 173

“He had decided” 189

The Great Specialist wrote:--“Special circumstances:
A Bastard” 199

The second and more jovial Great Specialist, Sir
William Bland 208

Joyous recognition of Buffy Thomas 218

John Kosciusko protesting against the interference
of Peers in Judicial Procedure 267

Ermyntrude, First (and Last) Viscountess Boole:
Lord Chancellor of England 272

MR. PETRE

MR. PETRE