Jonathan Caws-Elwitt explains: "Hope asserts in passing that 'there are generally two ways anywhere'—which might be a dull observation if it were strictly a metaphor, but which in context he means literally (if perhaps not
only literally). So, yes, there are generally not three, not one, but exactly
two ways to get from a given point A to a given point B on the map" (personal correspondence, May 1, 2013).
The Anthony Hope quotation appears in
Frivolous Cupid.