"What about?"
"Abolition of the Upper House."
"They were at that when I was at Eton." Stonor turned on his heel.
"Yes, but this man has got a way of putting things--the people went mad."
It was all very well for a mere girl to be staring indifferently out of the window, while a great historic party was steering straight for shipwreck; but it really was too much to see this man who ought to be taking the situation with the seriousness it deserved, strolling about the room with that abstracted air, looking superciliously at Mr.
Dunbarton"s examples of the Glasgow school. Farnborough balanced himself on wide-apart legs and thrust one hand in his trousers" pocket. The other hand held a telegram. "The Liberal platform as defined at Dutfield is going to make a big difference," he p.r.o.nounced.
"You think so," said Stonor, dryly.
"Well, your agent says as much." He pulled off the orange-brown envelope, threw it and the reply-paid form on the table, and held the message under the eyes of the obviously surprised gentleman in front of him.
"My agent!" Stonor had echoed with faint incredulity.
He took the telegram. ""Try find Stonor,"" he read. "H"m! H"m!" His eyes ran on.
Farnborough looked first at the expressionless face, and then at the message.
"You see!"--he glanced over Stonor"s shoulder--""tremendous effect of last night"s Liberal manifesto ought to be counteracted in to-morrow"s papers."" Then withdrawing a couple of paces, he said very earnestly, "You see, Mr. Stonor, it"s a battle-cry we want."
"Clap-trap," said the great man, throwing the telegram down on the table.
"Well," said Farnborough, distinctly dashed, "they"ve been saying we have nothing to offer but personal popularity. No practical reform, no----"
"No truckling to the ma.s.ses, I suppose."
Poor Farnborough bit his lip. "Well, in these democratic days, you"re obliged (I should _think_), to consider----" In his baulked and snubbed condition he turned to Miss Dunbarton for countenance. "I hope you"ll forgive my bursting in like this, but"--he gathered courage as he caught a glimpse of her averted face--"I can see you realize the gravity of the situation." He found her in the embrasure of the window, and went on with an air of speaking for her ear alone. "My excuse for being so officious--you see it isn"t as if he were going to be a mere private member. Everybody knows he"ll be in the Cabinet."
"It may be a Liberal Cabinet," came from Stonor at his dryest.
Farnborough leapt back into the fray. "n.o.body thought so up to last night. Why, even your brother----" he brought up short. "But I"m afraid I"m really seeming rather _too_----" He took up his hat.
"What about my brother?"
"Oh, only that I went from your house to the club, you know--and I met Lord Windlesham as I rushed up the Carlton steps."
"Well?"
"I told him the Dutfield news."
Stonor turned sharply round. His face was much more interested than any of his words had been.
As though in the silence, Stonor had asked a question, Farnborough produced the answer.
"Your brother said it only confirmed his fears."
"Said that, did he?" Stonor spoke half under his breath.
"Yes. Defeat is inevitable, he thinks, unless----" Farnborough waited, intently watching the big figure that had begun pacing back and forth.
It paused, but no word came, even the eyes were not raised.
"Unless," Farnborough went on, "you can manufacture some political dynamite within the next few hours. Those were his words."
As Stonor resumed his walk he raised his head and caught sight of Jean"s face. He stopped short directly in front of her.
"You are very tired," he said.
"No, no." She turned again to the window.
"I"m obliged to you for troubling about this," he said, offering Farnborough his hand with the air of civilly dismissing him. "I"ll see what can be done."
Farnborough caught up the reply-paid form from the table. "If you"d like to wire I"ll take it."
Faintly amused at this summary view of large complexities, "You don"t understand, my young friend," he said, not unkindly. "Moves of this sort are not rushed at by responsible politicians. I must have time for consideration."
Farnborough"s face fell. "Oh. Well, I only hope some one else won"t jump into the breach before you." With his watch in one hand, he held out the other to Miss Dunbarton. "Good-bye. I"ll just go and find out what time the newspapers go to press on Sunday. I"ll be at the Club," he threw over his shoulder, "just in case I can be of any use."
"No; don"t do that. If I should have anything new to say----"
"B-b-but with our party, as your brother said, "heading straight for a vast electoral disaster," and the Liberals----"
"If I decide on a counter-blast, I shall simply telegraph to headquarters. Good-bye."
"Oh! A--a--good-bye."
With a gesture of "the country"s going to the dogs," Farnborough opened the doors and closed them behind him.
Jean had rung the bell. She came back with her eyes on the ground, and paused near the table where the crumpled envelope made a dash of yellow-brown on the polished satinwood. Stonor stood studying the carpet, more concern in his face now that there was only Jean to see it.
""Political dynamite," eh?" he repeated, walking a few paces away. He returned with, "After all, women are much more Conservative _naturally_ than men, aren"t they?"
Jean"s lowered eyes showed no spark of interest in the issue. Her only motion, an occasional locking and unlocking of her fingers. But no words came. He glanced at her, as if for the first time conscious of her silence.
"You see now"--he threw himself into a chair--"one reason why I"ve encouraged you to take an interest in public questions. Because people like us don"t go screaming about it, is no sign we don"t--some of us--see what"s on the way. However little they may want to, women of our cla.s.s will have to come into line. All the best things in the world, everything civilization has won, will be in danger if--when this change comes--the only women who have practical political training are the women of the lower cla.s.ses. Women of the lower cla.s.ses," he repeated, "_and_"--the line between his eyebrows deepening--"women inoculated by the Socialist virus."
"Geoffrey!"
He was in no mood to discuss a concrete type. To so intelligent a girl, a hint should be enough. He drew the telegraph-form that still lay on the table towards him.
"Let us see how it would sound, shall we?"
He detached a gold pencil from one end of his watch-chain, and, with face more and more intent, bent over the paper, writing.
The girl opened her lips more than once to speak, and each time fell back again on her silent, half-incredulous misery.
When Stonor finished writing, he held the paper off, smiling a little, with the craftsman"s satisfaction in his work, and more than a touch of shrewd malice--