Doyle [concerned].  Has he gone mad?  You never told me.

Broadbent.  He has joined the Tariff Reform League.  He would never have done that if his mind had not been weakened. [Beginning to declaim] He has fallen a victim to the arts of a political charlatan who—­

Doyle [interrupting him].  You mean that you keep clear of your father because he differs from you about Free Trade, and you don’t want to quarrel with him.  Well, think of me and my father!  He’s a Nationalist and a Separatist.  I’m a metallurgical chemist turned civil engineer.  Now whatever else metallurgical chemistry may be, it’s not national.  It’s international.  And my business and yours as civil engineers is to join countries, not to separate them.  The one real political conviction that our business has rubbed into us is that frontiers are hindrances and flags confounded nuisances.

Broadbent [still smarting under Mr Chamberlain’s economic heresy].  Only when there is a protective tariff—­

Doyle [firmly] Now look here, Tom:  you want to get in a speech on Free Trade; and you’re not going to do it:  I won’t stand it.  My father wants to make St George’s Channel a frontier and hoist a green flag on College Green; and I want to bring Galway within 3 hours of Colchester and 24 of New York.  I want Ireland to be the brains and imagination of a big Commonwealth, not a Robinson Crusoe island.  Then there’s the religious difficulty.  My Catholicism is the Catholicism of Charlemagne or Dante, qualified by a great deal of modern science and folklore which Father Dempsey would call the ravings of an Atheist.  Well, my father’s Catholicism is the Catholicism of Father Dempsey.

Broadbent [shrewdly].  I don’t want to interrupt you, Larry; but you know this is all gammon.  These differences exist in all families; but the members rub on together all right. [Suddenly relapsing into portentousness] Of course there are some questions which touch the very foundations of morals; and on these I grant you even the closest relationships cannot excuse any compromise or laxity.  For instance—­

Doyle [impatiently springing up and walking about].  For instance, Home Rule, South Africa, Free Trade, and the Education Rate.  Well, I should differ from my father on every one of them, probably, just as I differ from you about them.

Broadbent.  Yes; but you are an Irishman; and these things are not serious to you as they are to an Englishman.

Doyle.  What! not even Home Rule!

Broadbent [steadfastly].  Not even Home Rule.  We owe Home Rule not to the Irish, but to our English Gladstone.  No, Larry:  I can’t help thinking that there’s something behind all this.

Doyle [hotly].  What is there behind it?  Do you think I’m humbugging you?

Broadbent.  Don’t fly out at me, old chap.  I only thought—­