CHAPTER XIV

“TEMPORAL POWER”

An Unprecedented Sale--A Note on its Title--Reviewed by Three Hundred and Fifty Journals, although not sent out to the Press--Criticisms from _Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper_ and the _Review of Reviews_--A Reply to Mr. Stead’s Suggestion that Certain Royal and other Characters in the Book have Living Counterparts--The Novelist’s Emphatic Denial in this Respect--“Carl Perousse, Secretary of State”--The European Statesman Miss Corelli had in her Mind when Drawing this Character--The “King” of “Temporal Power”--Morganatic Marriages: the Novelist’s Denunciation--Attempts on the Part of Book Trade Journals to Quash the Success of the Novel, and their Retractations--The Rejection of the King’s Love by Lotys, Woman of the People: a Quotation 265