BLACKBOROUGH.  Are we so incompetent?

TREBELL.  I daresay not.  I want to know ... that’s all.

CANTELUPE.  Please understand, Mr. Trebell, that I have in no way altered my good opinion of your proposals.

BLACKBOROUGH.  Well, I beg to remind you, Horsham, that from the first I’ve reserved myself liberty to criticise fundamental points in the scheme.

HORSHAM. [Pacifically.] Quite so ... quite so.

BLACKBOROUGH.  That nonsensical new standard of teachers’ salaries for one thing ... you’d never pass it.

HORSHAM.  Quite easily.  It’s an administrative point, so leave the legislation vague.  Then, as the appropriation money falls in, the qualifications rise and the salaries rise.  No one will object because no one will appreciate it but administrators past or future ... and they never cavil at money. [He remains lost in the beauty of this prospect.]

TREBELL.  Will you take charge of the bill, Blackborough?

BLACKBOROUGH.  Are you serious?

HORSHAM. [Brought to earth.] Oh no! [He corrects himself smiling.] I mean, my dear Blackborough, why not stick to the Colonies?

BLACKBOROUGH.  You see, Trebell, there’s still the possibility that O’Connell may finally spike your gun to-morrow.  You realise that, don’t you?

TREBELL.  Thank you.  I quite realise that.

CANTELUPE.  Can nothing further be done?

BLACKBOROUGH.  Weren’t we doing our best?

HORSHAM.  Yes ... if we were bending our thoughts to that difficulty now....

TREBELL. [Hardly.] May I ask you to interfere on my behalf no further?

FARRANT.  My dear Trebell!

TREBELL.  I assure you that I am interested in the Disestablishment Bill.

      So they turn readily enough from the more uncomfortable part of their
      subject.

BLACKBOROUGH.  Well ... here’s Farrant.

FARRANT.  I’m no good.  Give me Agriculture.

BLACKBOROUGH.  Pity you’re in the Lords, Horsham.

TREBELL.  Horsham, I’ll devil for any man you choose to name ... feed him sentence by sentence....

HORSHAM.  That’s impossible.

TREBELL.  Well, what’s to become of my bill?  I want to know.

BLACKBOROUGH. [Casting his care on Providence.] We shall manage somehow. 
Why, if you had died suddenly ... or let us say, never been born....

TREBELL.  Then, Blackborough ... speaking as a dying man ... if you go back on the integrity of this scheme, I’ll haunt you. [Having said this with some finality, he turns his back.]

CANTELUPE.  Cyril, I agree with what Trebell is saying.  Whatever happens there must be no tampering with the comprehensiveness of the scheme.  Remember you are in the hands of the extremists ... on both sides.  I won’t support a compromise on one ... nor will they on the other.