Hope, Anthony: Mrs. Maxon Protests. v1. 15 Dec 2013
 

Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, better known as Anthony Hope (9 February 1863 – 8 July 1933), was an English novelist and playwright. Although he was a prolific writer, especially of adventure novels, he is remembered best for only two books: The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) and its sequel Rupert of Hentzau (1898). These works, "minor classics" of English literature,are set in the contemporaneous fictional country of Ruritania and spawned the genre known as Ruritanian romance. Zenda has inspired many adaptations, most notably the 1937 Hollywood movie of the same name.

Excerpt
Inkpat! She shot out the word in a bitter playfulness, making it serve for the climax of her complaints. Hobart Gaynor repeated the world-if it could be called a word-after his companion in an interrogative tone. Yes, just hopeless inkpat, and there's an end of it! Mrs. Maxon leaned back as far as the unaccommodating angles of the office-chair allowed, looking at her friend and counselor with a faint yet rather mischievous smile on her pretty face. In the solicitor's big, high, bare room she seemed both small and very dainty. Her voice had trembled a little, but she made a brave effort at gayety as she explained her cryptic word.