NASH’S SUMMER LIBRARY OF POPULAR NOVELS No. 1. The Count’s Chauffeur No. 1. The Count’s Chauffeur Copyright in the United States of America by William Le Queux, 1907. CONTENTS [Pg 1] [Pg 1] THE COUNT’S CHAUFFEUR ———◆——— CHAPTER I A MOVE ON THE “FORTY” In Paris, in Rome, in Florence, in Berlin, in Vienna—in fact, over half the face of Europe, from the Pyrenees to the Russian frontier—I am now known as “The Count’s Chauffeur.” An Englishman, as my name George Ewart denotes, I am of cosmopolitan birth and education, my early youth having been spent on the Continent, where my father was agent for a London firm. When I was fourteen, my father, having prospered, came to London, and established himself as an agent in Wood Street, City, representing a great firm of silk manufacturers in Lyons. At twenty I tried City life, but an office with a high stool, a dusty ledger, and sandwich lunches, had no attraction for me. I had always had a turn for mechanics, but was never allowed to adopt engineering as a profession, my father’s one idea [Pg 2]being that I should follow in his footsteps—a delusive hope entertained by many a fond parent. [Pg 2] Six months of office life sufficed me. One day I went home to Teddington and refused to return again to Wood Street. This resulted in an open quarrel between my father and myself, with the
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