Three Plays by Granville-Barker Part 99

BLACKBOROUGH. I've given you one already.

CANTELUPE. [_His eye on_ BLACKBOROUGH.] Understand there are things in that scheme we must stand or fall by.

_Suddenly_ TREBELL _makes for the door_. HORSHAM _gets up concernedly_.

TREBELL. Horsham, make up your mind to-night whether you can do with me or not. I have to see Percival again to-morrow . . we cut short our argument at the important point. Good-bye . . don't come down. Will you decide to-night?

HORSHAM. I have made up my own mind.

TREBELL. Is that sufficient?

HORSHAM. A collective decision is a matter of development.

TREBELL. Well, I shall expect to hear.

HORSHAM. By hurrying one only reaches a rash conclusion.

TREBELL. Then be rash for once and take the consequences. Good-night.

_He is gone before_ HORSHAM _can compose another epigram_.

BLACKBOROUGH. [_Deprecating such conduct._] Lost his temper!

FARRANT. [_Ruffling considerably._] Horsham, if Trebell is to be hounded out of your cabinet . . he won't go alone.

HORSHAM. [_Bitter-sweet._] My dear Farrant . . I have yet to form my cabinet.

CANTELUPE. You are forming it to carry disestablishment, are you not, Cyril? Therefore you will form it in the best interests of the best scheme possible.

HORSHAM. Trebell was and is the best man I know of for the purpose. I'm a little weary of saying that.

_He folds his arms and awaits further developments. After a moment_ CANTELUPE _gets up as if to address a meeting_.

CANTELUPE. Then if you would prefer not to include me . . I shall feel justified in giving independent support to a scheme I have great faith in. [_And he sits down again._]

BLACKBOROUGH. [_Impatiently._] My dear Cantelupe, if you think Horsham can form a disestablishment cabinet to include Trebell and exclude you, you're vastly mistaken. I for one . . .

FARRANT. But do both of you consider how valuable, how vital Trebell is to us just at this moment? The Radicals trust him. . .

BLACKBOROUGH. They hate him.

HORSHAM. [_Elucidating._] Their front bench hates him because he turned them out. The rest of them hate their front bench. After six years of office, who wouldn't?

BLACKBOROUGH. That's true.

FARRANT. Oh, of course, we must stick to Trebell, Blackborough.

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.