Mannering smiled as he poured out his coffee.

“I talked common sense to them,” he remarked, “and Yorkshiremen like that.  We have been slaves to the old-fashioned idea of party Government long enough.  It’s an absurd thing when you come to think of it.  Fancy a great business being carried on by a board of partners of divergent views, and unable to make a purchase or a sale or effect any change whatever without talking the whole thing threadbare, and then voting upon it.  The business would go down, of course!”

“Party Government,” Borrowdean declared, “is the natural evolution of any republican form of administration.  A nation that chooses its own representatives must select them from its varying standpoint.”

“Their views may differ slightly upon some matters,” Mannering said, “but their first duty should be to come into accord with one another.  It is a matter for compromises, of course.  The real differences between intelligent men of either party are very slight.  The trouble is that under the present system everything is done to increase them instead of bridging them over.”

“If you had to form a Government, then,” Berenice asked, “you would not choose the members from one party?”

“Certainly not,” Mannering answered.  “Supposing I were the owner of Redford’s car there, and wanted a driver.  I should simply try to get the best man I could, and I should certainly not worry as to whether he were, say, a churchman or a dissenter.  The best man for the post is what the country has a right to expect, whatever he may call himself, and the country doesn’t get it.  The people pay the piper, and I consider that they get shocking bad value for their money.  The Boer War, for instance, would have cost us less than half as much if we had had the right men to direct the commercial side of it.  That money would have been useful in the country just now.”

“An absolute monarchy,” Hester said, smiling, “would be really the most logical form of Government, then?  But would it answer?”

“Why not?” Borrowdean asked.  “If the monarch were incapable he would of course be shot!”

“A dictator—­” Berenice began, but Mannering held out his hands, laughing.

“Think of my last few days, and spare me!” he begged.  “I have thirty-six hours’ holiday.  How do you people spend your time here?”

Berenice took him away with her as a matter of course.  Blanche watched them depart with a curious tightening of the lips.  She was standing alone in the gateway of the hotel, and she watched them until they were out of sight.  Borrowdean, sauntering out to buy some papers, paused for a moment as he passed.

“Your husband, Mrs. Mannering,” he said, drily, “is a very fortunate man.”

She made no reply, and Borrowdean passed on.  Hester came out with a message from Lady Redford—­would Mrs. Mannering care to motor over to Berneval for luncheon?  Blanche shook her head.  She scarcely heard the invitation.  She was still watching the two figures disappearing in the distance.  Hester understood, but she spoke lightly.