human
Sit down at once, she ordered, motioning him back to his easy-chair and coming herself to a corner of the lounge.
gpt
Remember that you have a great deal to tell me and explain. The newspapers say such queer things. Is it true that I really am entertaining a possible future Prime Minister?
human
I suppose that might be, he answered, a little vaguely, his eyes still fixed upon her.
gpt
So this is your room. I like it. And I like--
human
Well, go on, please,
gpt
I like the softness of your gown, and I like the fur against your throat and neck, and I like those buckles on your shoes, and the way you do your hair.
human
You mustn't turn my head! she protested.
gpt
You, fresh from London, which they tell me is terribly gay just now! I want to understand just what it means, your throwing in your lot with the Democrats. My uncle says, for instance, that you have abandoned respectable politics to become a Tower Hill pedagogue.
human
Respectable politics, he replied,
gpt
But the Democrats, she ventured,
human
I have formed a different idea of their strength, he answered.
gpt
I believe that if a general election took place to-morrow, the Democrats would sweep the country. I believe that we should have the largest working majority any Government has had since the war.
human
How terrible!
gpt
Your tame socialism isn't equal to the prospect,
human
My tame socialism, as you call it, she replied,
gpt
Lady Jane, he said earnestly,
human
I am glad that I am here to point out to you a colossal mistake from which you and many others are suffering. The Democrats do not represent Labour only.
gpt
The small shopkeepers?
human
Nothing of the sort, he replied.
gpt
The influence of my party has spread far deeper and further. We number amongst our adherents the majority of the professional classes and the majority of the thinking people amongst the community of moderate means. Why, if you consider the legislation of the last seven or eight years, you will see how they have been driven to embrace some sort of socialism. Nothing so detestable and short-sighted as our financial policy has ever been known in the history of the world. The middle classes, meaning by the middle classes professional men and men of moderate means, bore the chief burden of the war. They submitted to terrible taxation, to many privations, besides the universal gift of their young blood. We won the war and what was the result? The wealth of the country, through ghastly legislation, drifted into the hands of the profiteering classes, the wholesale shopkeepers, the ship owners, the factory owners, the mine owners. The professional man with two thousand a year was able to save a quarter of that before the war. After the war, taxation demanded that quarter and more for income tax, thrust upon him an increased cost of living, cut the ground from beneath his feet. It isn't either of the two extremes--the aristocrat or the labouring man--where you must look for the pulse of a country's prosperity. It is to the classes in between, and, Lady Jane, they are flocking to our camp just as fast as they can, just as fast as the country is heading for ruin under its present Government.
human
You are very convincing, she admitted.
gpt
Why have you not spoken so plainly in the House?
human
The moment hasn't arrived, Tallente replied.
gpt
There will be a General Election before many months have passed and that will be the end of the present fools' paradise at St. Stephen's.
human
And then?
gpt
We shan't abuse our power, he assured her.
human
What we aim at is a National Party which will consider the interests of every class. That is our reading of the term 'Democrat.' Our programme is not nearly so revolutionary as you are probably led to believe, but we do mean to smooth away, so far as we can from a practical point of view, the inequalities of life. We want to sweep away the last remnants of feudalism.
gpt
Tell me why they were so anxious to gather you into the fold?
human
I think for this reason, he explained.
gpt
Stephen Dartrey is a brilliant writer, a great orator, and an inspired lawmaker. The whole world recognises him as a statesman. It is his name and genius which have made the Democratic Party possible. On the other hand, he is not in the least a politician. He doesn't understand the game as it is played in the House of Commons. He lives above those things. That is why I suppose they wanted me. I have learnt the knack of apt debating and I understand the tricks. Even if ever I become the titular head of the party, Dartrey will remain the soul and spirit of it. If they were not able to lay their hands upon some person like myself, I believe that Miller was supposed to have the next claim, and I should think that Miller is the one man in the world who might disunite the strongest party on earth.
human
Disunite it? I should think he would disperse it to the four corners of the world!
gpt
I cannot tell you, he said, with a little sigh of relief, as he held open the door for her,