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they could have
pulled them through....
FRANCES TREBELL. Not the Spoliation one.
WALTER KENT. Well, Mr. Trebell dished that!
FRANCES TREBELL. Henry says his speech didn't turn a vote.
MRS. FARRANT. [With charming irony.] How disinterested of him!
WALTER KENT. [Enthusiastic.] That speech did if ever a speech did.
FRANCES TREBELL. Is there any record of a speech that ever did?
He just carried his own little following with him.
MRS. FARRANT. But the crux of the whole matter is and has always
been ... what's to be done with the Church's money.
LUCY DAVENPORT. [Visualising sovereigns.] A hundred millions or
so ... think of it!
FRANCES TREBELL. There has been from the start a good deal of
anti-Nonconformist feeling against applying the money to secular uses.
MRS. FARRANT. [Deprecating false modesty, on anyone's behalf.]
Oh, of course the speech turned votes ... twenty of them at least.
LUCY DAVENPORT. [Determined on information.] Then I was told

Lord Horsham had tried to come to an understanding himself with the
Nonconformists about Disestablishment--oh--a long time ago ... over
the Education Bill.
FRANCES TREBELL. Is that true, Julia?
MRS. FARRANT. How should I know?
FRANCES TREBELL. [With some mischief] You might.
MRS. FARRANT. [Weighing her words.] I don't think it would have
been altogether wise to make advances. They'd have asked more than a
Conservative government could possibly persuade the Church to give
up.
WALTER KENT. I don't see that Horsham's much better off now. He
only turned the Radicals out on the Spoliation question by the help of
Trebell. And so far ... I mean, till this election is over Trebell counts
still as one of them, doesn't he, Miss Trebell? Oh ... perhaps he doesn't.
FRANCES TREBELL. He'll tell you he never has counted as one of
them.
MRS. FARRANT. No doubt Lord Charles would sooner have done
without his help. And that's why I didn't ask the gentle Jesuit this
week-end if anyone wants to know.
WALTER KENT. [Stupent at this lack of party spirit.] What ... he'd
rather have had the Liberals go to the country undefeated!
MRS. FARRANT. [With finesse.] The election may bring us back
independent of Mr. Trebell and anything he stands for.
WALTER KENT. [Sharply.] But you asked Lord Horsham to meet
him.
MRS. FARRANT. [With still more finesse.] I had my reasons. Votes
aren't everything.

LADY DAVENPORT has been listening with rather a doubtful smile;
she now caps the discussion.
LADY DAVENPORT. I'm relieved to hear you say so, my dear Julia.
On the other hand democracy seems to have brought itself to a pretty
pass. Here's a measure, which the country as a whole neither demands
nor approves of, will certainly be carried, you tell me, because a
minority on each side is determined it shall be ... for totally different
reasons.
MRS. FARRANT. [Shrugging again.] It isn't our business to prevent
popular government looking foolish, Mamma.
LADY DAVENPORT. Is that Tory cynicism or feminine?
At this moment GEORGE FARRANT comes through the window; a
good natured man of forty-five. He would tell you that he was educated
at Eton and Oxford. But the knowledge which saves his life comes from
the thrusting upon him of authority and experience; ranging from the
management of an estate which he inherited at twenty-four, through the
chairmanship of a newspaper syndicate, through a successful marriage,
to a minor post in the last Tory cabinet and the prospect of one in the
near-coming next. Thanks to his agents, editors, permanent officials,
and his own common sense, he always acquits himself creditably. He
comes to his wife's side and waits for a pause in the conversation.
LADY DAVENPORT. I remember Mr. Disraeli once said to me ...
Clever women are as dangerous to the State as dynamite.
FRANCES TREBELL. [Not to be impressed by Disraeli.] Well, Lady
Davenport, if men will leave our intellects lying loose about....
FARRANT. Blackborough's going, Julia.
MRS. FARRANT. Yes, George.
LADY DAVENPORT. [Concluding her little apologue to MISS
TREBELL.] Yes, my dear, but power without responsibility isn't good

for the character that wields it either.
[There follows FARRANT through the window a man of fifty. He has
about him that unmistakeable air of acquired wealth and power which
distinguishes many Jews and has therefore come to be regarded as a
solely Jewish characteristic. He speaks always with that swift decision
which betokens a narrowed view. This is RUSSELL
BLACKBOROUGH; manufacturer, politician ... statesman, his own
side calls him.]
BLACKBOROUGH. [To his hostess.] If I start now, they tell me, I
shall get home before the moon goes down. I'm sorry I must get back
to-night. It's been a most delightful week-end.
MRS. FARRANT. [Gracefully giving him a good-bye hand.] And a
successful one, I hope.
FARRANT. We talked Education for half an hour.
MRS. FARRANT.