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?