Fleming knew enough Russian to communicate effectively with Moscow residents, and he was excited by the trial. He set up elaborate preparations to scoop the opposition when the verdict came in but was beaten out by twenty minutes.
When Fleming returned to England, Reuters offered him a position as assistant to the bureau chief in Shanghai at an annual salary of £800. Although it was a significant increase over what he was then earning and he liked the excitement of the life of a foreign correspondent, he needed still more money to live in the style he enjoyed. Robert Fleming had died earlier that year, but although Fleming had been on excellent terms with his grandfather, he had not been provided for in the will. Realizing that if he wanted to live like the aristocrats with whom he associated he was going to have to earn the money himself, Fleming decided to follow his mother's advice to seek a more lucrative career in the London financial world. Through the combined influence of his mother and his mistress, Maud Russell, he found a position with Cull and Company, a merchant banking firm.
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