human
Heard the news? the latter asked curtly.
gpt
No. Is there any?
human
Tallente's broken the truce, Miller announced.
gpt
There was rather an acid debate on the Compensation Clauses of Hensham's Allotment Bill. Tallente pulled them to pieces and then challenged a division. The Government Whips were fairly caught napping and were beaten by twelve votes.
human
Tallente is a most wonderful tactician, he said.
gpt
This is the second time he's forced the Government into a hole. Horlock will never last the session, at this rate.
human
There are rumours of a resignation, of course, Miller went on,
gpt
We don't want them to, Dartrey agreed.
human
All the time, though, this sort of thing is weakening their prestige. We shall be ready to give them their coup de grace in about four months.
gpt
I can't seem to get on with Tallente,
human
I am sorry, Dartrey regretted.
gpt
You'll have to try, Miller. We can't do without him.
human
Try? I have tried, was the impatient rejoinder.
gpt
Tallente may have his points but nature never meant him to be a people's man. He's too hidebound in convention and tradition. Upon my soul, Dartrey, he makes me feel like a republican of the bloodthirsty age, he's so blasted superior!
human
You're going back to the smaller outlook, Miller, his chief expostulated.
gpt
These personal prejudices should be entirely negligible. I am perfectly certain that Tallente himself would lay no stress upon them.
human
Stress upon them? Damn it, I'm as good as he is! Miller exclaimed irritably.
gpt
There's no harm in Tallente's ratting, quitting his order and coming amongst us Democrats, but what I do object to is his bringing the mannerisms and outlook of Eton and Oxford amongst us. When I am with him, he always makes me feel that I am doing the wrong thing and that he knows it.
human
This is rubbish, Miller, he pronounced.
gpt
It is you who are to blame for attaching the slightest importance to these trifles.
human
Trifles! Miller growled.
gpt
Within a very short time, Dartrey, this question will have to be settled. Does Tallente know that I am promised a seat in his Cabinet?
human
I think that he must surmise it.
gpt
The sooner he knows, the better, Miller declared acidly.
human
Tallente can unbend all right when he likes. He was dining at the Trocadero the other night with Brooks and Ainley and Parker and Saunderson--the most cheerful party in the place. Tallente seemed to have slipped out of himself, and yet there isn't one of those men who has ever had a day's schooling or has ever worn anything but ready-made clothes. He leaves his starch off when he's with them. What's the matter with me, I should like to know? I'm a college man, even though I did go as an exhibitioner. I was a school teacher when those fellows were wielding pick-axes.