Half A Hero

The Governor agreed heartily with measures introduced by the ministry; and his relations with the government and Sir Robert Perry, its chief, had been based on reciprocal liking and respect -- for they were most of them gentlemen and all of them respectable. And Lady Eynesford's discerning approval of all involved had meant a stellar season at their table.

Suddenly, in the midst of an apparently peaceful session, came what the Governor considered an unhallowed combination -- between a discontented section of Perry's party and the Opposition under Medland. Now the Government was in defeat, and the resignation of Sir Robert made inevitable the rise of Mr. Medland -- a thoroughly unsatisfactory outcome -- not least to Lady Eynseford.

English romantic novelist Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins (1863-1933), writing as Anthony Hope, and famous for his tales from the corridors of power, tells of Medford's popular but tumultuous rise -- to be threatened by riot and tragedy -- in "Half a Hero."