Harry Rames shook his head.
"I rather propose to leave those questions alone. I don"t want to get the reputation of being a service member."
"I appreciate that," said Mr. Devenish. "But you are asked to speak in this debate by the government."
"On the general question?" asked Rames.
"Not so much on that. The point is the economy of the big ship. You can speak from practical experience. You know. You are here in Parliament to contribute your knowledge." Mr. Devenish turned to Cynthia, and again his smile illumined his face. "Persuade him, Mrs.
Rames."
It occurred to Cynthia that Mr. Devenish did not trouble to inquire whether Harry Rames believed the big ship to be an economical thing.
Harry was to support the government. The rest of his argument she agreed with. It was Harry"s duty, since he was in Parliament, to contribute of his knowledge.
"Very well," said Captain Rames. "Of course if the government wishes it, I shall be proud to take part in the debate. Won"t you sit down and have some coffee?"
"Yes, do!" said Cynthia cordially, and she was not altogether engaged in helping her husband on when she spoke. Mr. Devenish now puzzled her. She had begun by disliking him. He had spoken very few words to her, and yet she no longer disliked him. There was a charm in his manner of which he seemed quite unaware. At close quarters he lost the narrowness, which she had thought the mark of him. He seemed broadly human, comprehensively sympathetic. Yet he obviously wore no mask. He was simple, and he gave a pleasant impression of being a good fighter.
Mr. Devenish drew up a chair and sat down.
"You come to many of our debates," he said to Cynthia. "What do you think of us?" and with an unaffected interest in the views of a pretty woman, he led her on to express her opinion.
"Well," she said frankly, "I think most of your debates are very dull."
"That"s quite true," Mr. Devenish replied with a laugh at the little spurt of complaint in her voice. "Nine out of ten are dull, and if you were in the government you would wish the tenth was too. The debate which sparkles and amuses you in the gallery means keen opposition on the floor of the House. The debate which is dull means that the government gets its bill. And the government is there to get its bills."
"Yes, I suppose that"s true," said Cynthia, and then Harry Rames intervened.
"It"s curious," he said, "but I no longer find any debate dull. I used to be bored, I admit it, but I can sit through anything now and find it interesting."
"Yes," said Cynthia, nodding her head; "I have noticed that, Harry, from the gallery, and--I think it"s a bad sign."
"The sign of the true Parliamentarian," said Mr. Devenish.
"Perhaps," said Cynthia stubbornly. "Still a bad one."
"Now why?" asked Mr. Devenish indulgently. Cynthia was certainly a very pretty woman. Let her talk! Cynthia colored and replied hotly:
"Because it means that the four walls of that little chamber are closing in on you. The game inside, with its pauses, its coups, its man[oe]uvres, is becoming more important than the great interests and issues outside which you are there to decide. It means that in your thoughts the country and the const.i.tuency are growing smaller, and the green leather benches on which you sit becoming more and more important. If you don"t find any debates dull, you are growing aloof from the country. You are becoming, as you say, a Parliamentarian.
That means Parliament first, the country a bad second."
Cynthia stopped abruptly. She had allowed herself to be betrayed into delivering a lecture upon politics to a past-master in the art, a man who, out of his forty-five years, had spent twenty in the House of Commons. She flushed. "But you must think me a fool," she cried.
"I don"t," Mr. Devenish exclaimed. "Yours is a definite point of view." He was not speaking seriously. For he was eager to learn so long as the learning came to him by word of mouth, and not from the printed page. "Tell me some more."
He was considering no longer the prettiness of the woman, the changing lights upon her face. He was conceding respect to her judgment.
Cynthia was mollified. She continued:
"And here"s something which to me makes many of the debates tedious and unreal. You all behave as if your ideal of a member of the House of Commons were a fossil on a shelf."
Mr. Devenish laughed.
"Why do you say that, Mrs. Rames?"
"Because if a man changes his opinions ever so little during a course of years, he at once has the reports of his old speeches flung at his head in scathing accents, as though he had committed the meanest of crimes."
"It"s a party score," said Mr. Devenish.
"Yes, but why?" Cynthia insisted. "You must all know that a man who is any use at all does change his opinions as his experience widens.
Surely that"s true. What"s the use of thought at all if it leaves you precisely where you were?"
"Mrs. Rames," said Mr. Devenish, "I cannot dispute it."
Cynthia had long been puzzled by this extraordinary childishness on the part of men of reputed intelligence. She was determined if she could to get at the truth. "Then why?" she asked. "Why, when one of the opposition proves that a member of the government has changed his view, does all the opposition shout with derision, and why do all on the government side look glum? Why must the minister labor to show that he really hasn"t changed any views? Why does he rise so quickly to do it? And why, when he has risen, doesn"t he say: "Of course I have changed my views. I am a better man than I was two years ago.""
"Well, upon my word, I can"t tell you why," said Mr. Devenish honestly. "I suppose we haven"t the courage. Don"t you approve of us at all?"
"Oh, yes, I do," said Cynthia quickly; "and much more than I expected to do." She was induced to give her impression of the body of members.
"I had got an idea that everybody was in here to get something." She grew suddenly red, and in a flurry, which Mr. Devenish did not understand. She continued, "I suppose I got the idea from newspapers.
I made a wrong inference. They are here, of course--the rich men who want honors to put a crown upon their wealth, the office-hunters, the speculator, and the financier, who use their membership to help their city business--But there are others one is apt to overlook, the silent people, who make no mark, and don"t want to make one. You see them in the lobby, rather disconsolately busy about nothing. They are probably not particularly intelligent. Some of them, no doubt, are quite stupid. But one rather respects them, because membership of the House of Commons means to them a real daily loss. They would be more prosperous if they devoted the time they spend here to their business.
But they seem to be here because they believe that some things want doing, some definite things, and that they can help to get them done by their votes. There is a lot of them. Then there are the country gentlemen who would be happier on their estates, and would be there but for their conviction that the solid judgment of the country gentleman is absolutely necessary in the council of the nation." She spoke with pomposity and a friendly mimicry of the cla.s.s she described. "But I like them. I think they are of value because to them, too, membership here means a real loss."
"Well, I agree," said Mr. Devenish.
"You! You do?" asked Cynthia in surprise. "I thought that--" and she stopped.
"Well, what?" Mr. Devenish pressed for her opinion with a laugh.
"Never mind," said Cynthia. "There"s another cla.s.s, too, which attracts me. The failures. The ambitious men who just don"t succeed, and fail by so very little, but fail completely."
"Yes," Mr. Devenish agreed, "their lot is not attractive. They can"t bring themselves to admit failure. They drift along here until the time is past for them to do anything else. The four walls, as you say, have closed about them. They sit here, eating out their hearts, jealous of the others who succeed, and making a bitter pretence of contentment."
"They are the prisoners of the House of Commons," said Cynthia, and the phrase struck pleasantly upon Mr. Devenish"s ears so used to the slipshod metaphors of the average speaker.
"Yes," he said with a quick look of interest. "Yes, that"s a true saying. How did you think of it, Mrs. Rames?"
"I have sympathy with failures," she replied.
"Ah," said Mr. Devenish. "But it"s easy to have that when one is married to success," and he turned genially to Captain Rames.
A junior whip hurried up to the table.
"You are wanted, Mr. Devenish, in the House," he said.
Devenish looked at his watch and sprang up. "I have stayed longer than I ought to. We can count upon you then, Rames, for Thursday," and he hurried away. Cynthia followed him with her eyes. He attracted her and he left with her an impression of power, which made his interest in her, obviously expressed, a subtle flattery. She turned back to her husband.
"I was mistaken in that man," she said, and as Harry Rames did not answer her, she continued: "You see, Harry, I am doing my best to help you on."
"You are indeed," said Harry Rames sulkily. Cynthia stared at him. The sulkiness in his voice set her blood tingling. He could be jealous then! She laughed out loud suddenly, with a girl"s joyousness, and, as Harry lifted inquiring eyes to her, the blood mantled into her cheeks, and she sat in a pretty confusion. For a moment both of them were embarra.s.sed, and neither could have told why. Cynthia broke through the embarra.s.sment with the first words which occurred to her: