BLACKBOROUGH. Yes ... I suppose he might turn nasty.
FARRANT. I should hope he would.
BLACKBOROUGH.[_Tackling_ FARRANT _with great ease._] I should hope he would
consider the matter not from the personal, but from the political point of
view ... as I am trying to do.
HORSHAM. [_Tasting his epigram with enjoyment._] Introspection is the only
bar to such an honourable endeavour, [BLACKBOROUGH _gapes._] You don't
suffer from that as--for instance--Charles here, does.
BLACKBOROUGH. [_Pugnaciously._] D'you mean I'm just pretending not to attack
him personally?
HORSHAM. [_Safe on his own ground._] It's only a curious metaphysical point.
Have you never noticed your distaste for the colour of a man's hair
translate itself ultimately into an objection to his religious opinions ...
or what not? I am sure--for instance--I could trace Charles's scruples about
sitting in a cabinet with Trebell back to a sort of academic reverence for
women generally which he possesses. I am sure I could ... if he were not
probably now doing it himself. But this does not make the scruples less
real, less religious, or less political. We must be humanly biased in
expression ... or not express ourselves.
BLACKBOROUGH. [_Whose thoughts have wandered._] The man's less of a danger
than he was ... I mean he'll be alone. The Liberals won't have him back. He
smashed his following there to come over to us.
FARRANT. [_Giving a further meaning to this._] Yes, Blackborough, he did.
BLACKBOROUGH. To gain his own ends! Oh, my dear Horsham, can't you see that
if O'Connell had blabbed to-morrow it really would have been a blessing in
disguise? I don't pretend to Cantelupe's standard ... but there must be
something radically wrong with a man who could get himself into such a mess
as that ... now mustn't there? Ah! ... you have a fatal partiality for
clever people. I tell you ... though this might be patched up ... Trebell
would fail us in some other way before we were six months older.
_This speech has its effect; but_ HORSHAM _looks at him a little
sternly._
HORSHAM. And am I to conclude that you don't want Charles to change his
mind?
BLACKBOROUGH. [_On another tack._] Farrant has not yet allowed us to hear
Percival's opinion.