distinguished.

The great Ambassadors, the great financiers, the great nobles, all
the men that move the world, put up under my roof. London is the
centre of everything, and my hotel - your hotel - is the centre of
London. Once I had a King and a Dowager Empress staying here at
the same time. Imagine that!'

'A great honour, Mr Babylon. But wherein lies the difficulty?'

'Mr Racksole,' was the grim reply, 'what has become of your
shrewdness - that shrewdness which has made your fortune so
immense that even you cannot calculate it? Do you not perceive
that the roof which habitually shelters all the force, all the
authority of the world, must necessarily also shelter nameless and
numberless plotters, schemers, evil-doers, and workers of
mischief? The thing is as clear as day - and as dark as night. Mr
Racksole, I never know by whom I am surrounded. I never know
what is going forward.

Only sometimes I get hints, glimpses of strange acts and strange
secrets.

You mentioned my servants. They are almost all good servants,
skilled, competent. But what are they besides? For anything I know
my fourth sub-chef may be an agent of some European
Government. For anything I know my invaluable Miss Spencer
may be in the pay of a court dressmaker or a Frankfort banker.
Even Rocco may be someone else in addition to Rocco.'