CANTELUPE. Your asking such a question shows that you would not understand
my answer to it.
FARRANT. [_Leaving the fellow to his subtleties._] Well, what about the
maid?
WEDGECROFT. She may suspect facts but not names, I think. Why should they
question her on such a point if O'Connell says nothing?
HORSHAM. He's really very late. I told ... [_He stops._] Charles, I've
forgotten that man's name again.
CANTELUPE. Edmunds, you said it was.
HORSHAM. Edmunds. Everybody's down at Lympne ... I've been left with a new
man here and I don't know his name. [_He is very pathetic._] I told him to
put O'Connell in the library there. I thought that either Farrant or I might
perhaps see him first and--
_At this moment_ EDMUNDS _comes in, and, with that air of discreet
tact which he considers befits the establishment of a Prime Minister,
announces_, "Mr. O'Connell, my lord." _As_ O'CONNELL _follows him_,
HORSHAM _can only try not to look too disconcerted._ O'CONNELL, _in
his tightly buttoned frock coat, with his shaven face and
close-cropped iron grey hair, might be mistaken for a Catholic priest;
except that he has not also acquired the easy cheerfulness which
professional familiarity with the mysteries of that religion seems to
give. For the moment, at least, his features are so impassive that
they may tell either of the deepest grief or the purest indifference;
or it may be, merely of reticence on entering a stranger's room. He
only bows towards_ HORSHAM'S _half-proffered hand. With instinctive
respect for the situation of this tragically made widower the men have
risen and stand in various uneasy attitudes._
HORSHAM. Oh ... how do you do? Let me see ... do you know my cousin Charles
Cantelupe? Yes ... we were expecting Russell Blackborough. Sir Henry
Percival is ill. Do sit down.
O'CONNELL _takes the nearest chair and gradually the others settle
themselves_; FARRANT _seeking an obscure corner. But there follows an
uncomfortable silence, which_ O'CONNELL _at last breaks._
O'CONNELL. You have sent for me, Lord Horsham?
HORSHAM. I hope that by my message I conveyed no impression of sending for
you.
O'CONNELL. I am always in some doubt as to by what person or persons in or
out of power this country is governed. But from all I hear you are at the
present moment approximately entitled to send for me.
_The level music of his Irish tongue seems to give finer edge to his
sarcasm._
HORSHAM. Well, Mr. O'Connell ... you know our request before we make it.
O'CONNELL. Yes, I understand that if the fact of Mr. Trebell's adultery with
my wife were made as public as its consequences to her must be to-morrow,
public opinion would make it difficult for you to include him in your
cabinet.
HORSHAM. Therefore we ask you ... though we have no right to ask you ... to
consider the particular circumstances and forget the man in the statesman,
Mr. O'Connell.
O'CONNELL. My wife is dead. What have I to do at all with Mr. Trebell as a
man? As a statesman I am in any case uninterested in him.
_Upon this throwing of cold water_, EDMUNDS _returns to mention even
more discreetly...._
EDMUNDS. Mr. Blackborough is in the library, my lord.
HORSHAM. [_Patiently impatient._] No, no ... here.
WEDGECROFT. Let me go.
HORSHAM. [_To the injured_ EDMUNDS.] Wait ... wait.
WEDGECROFT. I'll put him _au fait._ I shan't come back.
HORSHAM. [_Gratefully._] Yes, yes. [_Then to_ EDMUNDS _who is waiting with
perfect dignity._] Yes ... yes ... yes.
EDMUNDS _departs and_ WEDGECROFT _makes for the library door, glad to
escape._
O'CONNELL. If you are not busy at this hour, Wedgecroft, I should be
grateful if you'd wait for me. I shall keep you, I think, but a very few
minutes.
WEDGECROFT. [_In his most matter-of-fact tone._] All right, O'Connell.
_He goes into the library._
CANTELUPE. Don't you think, Cyril, it would be wiser to prevent your man
coming into the room at all while we're discussing this?
HORSHAM. [_Collecting his scattered tact._] Yes, I thought I had arranged
that he shouldn't. I'm very sorry. He's a fool. However, there's no one else
to come. Once more, Mr. O'Connell.... [_He frames no sentence._]
O'CONNELL. I am all attention, Lord Horsham.