TREBELL. On what grounds?
CANTELUPE. Unarguable ones.
HORSHAM. [_Finding refuge again in his mantelpiece._] You know, he has gone
off without giving me his promise.
FARRANT. That's your own fault, Trebell.
HORSHAM. The fool says I didn't give him explicit instructions.
FARRANT. What fool?
HORSHAM. That man ... [_The name fails him._] ... my new man. One of those
touches of Fate's little finger, really.
_He begins to consult the ceiling and the carpet once more._ TREBELL
_tackles_ CANTELUPE _with gravity._
TREBELL. I have only a logical mind, Cantelupe. I know that to make myself a
capable man I've purged myself of all the sins ... I never was idle enough
to commit. I know that if your God didn't make use of men, sins and all ...
what would ever be done in the world? That one natural action, which the
slight shifting of a social law could have made as negligible as eating a
meal, can make me incapable ... takes the linch-pin out of one's brain,
doesn't it?
HORSHAM. Trebell, we've been doing our best to get you out of this mess.
Your remarks to O'Connell weren't of any assistance, and....
CANTELUPE _stands up, so momentously that_ HORSHAM'S _gentle flow of speech
dries up._
CANTELUPE. Perhaps I had better say at once that, whatever hushing up you
may succeed in, it will be impossible for me to sit in a cabinet with Mr.
Trebell.
_It takes even_ FARRANT _a good half minute to recover his power of
speech on this new issue._
FARRANT. What perfect nonsense, Cantelupe! I hope you don't mean that.
BLACKBOROUGH. Complication number one, Horsham.
FARRANT. [_Working up his protest._] Why on earth not? You really mustn't
drag your personal feelings and prejudices into important matters like this
... matters of state.
CANTELUPE. I think I have no choice, when Trebell stands convicted of a
mortal sin, of which he has not even repented.
TREBELL. [_With bitterest cynicism._] Dictate any form of repentance you
like ... my signature is yours.
CANTELUPE. Is this a matter for intellectual jugglery?
TREBELL. [_His defence failing at last._] I offered to face the scandal from
my place in the House. That was mad, wasn't it....
BLACKBOROUGH--_his course mapped out--changes the tone of the
discussion._
BLACKBOROUGH. Horsham, I hope Trebell will believe I have no personal
feelings in this matter, but we may as well face the fact even now that
O'Connell holding his tongue to-morrow won't stop gossip in the House, club
gossip, gossip in drawing rooms. What do the Radicals really care so long as
a scandal doesn't get into the papers! There's an inner circle with its eye
on us.
FARRANT. Well, what does that care as long as scandal's its own copyright?
Do you know, my dear father refused a peerage because he felt it meant
putting blinkers on his best newspaper.
BLACKBOROUGH. [_A little subtly._] Still ... now you and Horsham are
cousins, aren't you?
FARRANT. [_Off the track and explanatory._] No, no ... my wife's mother....
BLACKBOROUGH. I'm inaccurate, for I'm not one of the family circle myself.
My money gets me here and any skill I've used in making it. It wouldn't keep
me at a pinch. And Trebell ... [_He speaks through his teeth._] ... do you
think your accession to power in the party is popular at the best? Who is
going to put out a finger to make it less awkward for Horsham to stick to
you if there's a chance of your going under?