BLACKBOROUGH _is silent; so_ HORSHAM _turns his attention to his cousin._

HORSHAM. Well, Charles, I won't ask you for a decision now. I know how hard it is to accept the dictates of other men's consciences ... but a necessary condition of all political work; believe me.

CANTELUPE. [_Uneasily._] You can form your cabinet without me, Cyril.

_At this_ BLACKBOROUGH _charges down on them, so to speak._

BLACKBOROUGH. No, I tell you, I'm d.a.m.ned if he can. Leaving the whole high church party to blackmail all they can out of us and vote how they like!

Here ... I've got my Yorkshire people to think of. I can bargain for them with you in a cabinet ... not if you've the pull of being out of it.

HORSHAM. [_With charming insinuation._] And have you calculated, Blackborough, what may become of us if Trebell has the pull of being out of it?

BLACKBOROUGH _makes a face._

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.

FARRANT _looks rather alarmed._

FARRANT. It has very little reference to the scandal.

BLACKBOROUGH. As that is at an end ... all the more reason we should hear it.

HORSHAM. [_Ranging himself with_ FARRANT.] I called this quite informal meeting, Blackborough, only to dispose of the scandal, if possible.

BLACKBOROUGH. Well, of course, if Farrant chooses to insult Percival so gratuitously by burking his message to us....

_There is an unspoken threat in this_, HORSHAM _sees it and without disguising his irritation...._

HORSHAM. Let us have it, Farrant.

FARRANT. [_With a sort of puzzled discontent._] Well ... I never got to telling him of the O'Connell affair at all. He started talking to me ...

saying that he couldn't for a moment agree to Trebell's proposals for the finance of his bill ... I couldn't get a word in edgeways. Then his wife came up....

HORSHAM _takes something in this so seriously that he actually interrupts._

HORSHAM. Does he definitely disagree? What is his point?

FARRANT. He says Disestablishment's a bad enough speculation for the party as it is.

BLACKBOROUGH. It is inevitable.

FARRANT. He sees that. But then he says ... to go to the country again having bolstered up Education and quarrelled with everybody will be bad enough ... to go having spent fifty millions on it will dish us all for our lifetimes.

HORSHAM. What does he propose?

FARRANT. He'll offer to draft another bill and take it through himself. He says ... do as many good turns as we can with the money ... don't put it all on one horse.

BLACKBOROUGH. He's your man, Horsham. That's one difficulty settled.

HORSHAM'S _thoughts are evidently beyond_ BLACKBOROUGH, _beyond the absent_ PERCIVAL _even._

HORSHAM. Oh ... any of us could carry that sort of a bill.

CANTELUPE _has heard this last pa.s.sage with nothing less than horror and pale anger, which he contains no longer._

CANTELUPE. I won't have this. I won't have this opportunity frittered away for party purposes.

BLACKBOROUGH. [_Expostulating reasonably._] My dear Cantelupe ... you'll get whatever you think it right for the Church to have. You carry a solid thirty eight votes with you.

HORSHAM'S _smooth voice intervenes. He speaks with finesse._

HORSHAM. Percival, as an old campaigner, expresses himself very roughly. The point is, that we are after all only the trustees of the party. If we know that a certain step will decimate it ... clearly we have no right to take the step.

CANTELUPE. [_Glowing to white heat._] Is this a time to count the consequences to ourselves?

HORSHAM. [_Unkindly._] By your action this evening, Charles, you evidently think not. [_He salves the wound._] No matter, I agree with you ... the bill should be a comprehensive one, whoever brings it in.

BLACKBOROUGH. [_Not without enjoyment of the situation._] Whoever brings it in will have to knuckle under to Percival over its finance.

FARRANT. Trebell won't do that. I warned Percival.

HORSHAM. Then what did he say?

FARRANT. He only swore.