Part 11 (1/2)
”I didn't say so.”
”But I understand that you uphold Bolshevism?”
”I don't uphold funk. But,” said Ralph, ”there's rather more in it than that. It's being engineered. It's a deliberate, dishonest, and malicious attempt to discredit Labour.”
”Absurd,” said Mr. Waddington. ”You show that you are ignorant of the very principles of the League.”
If he recognized Ralph's youth, it was only to despise it as crude and uninformed.
”It is--the--National--League--of Liberty.”
”Well, that's about all the liberty there is in it--liberty to suppress liberty.”
”You may not know that I'm starting a branch of the League in Wyck.”
”I'm sorry, sir. I did not know. f.a.n.n.y, why did you lay that trap for me?”
”Because I wanted your real opinion.”
”Before you set up an opinion, you had better come to my meeting on the twenty-first. Then perhaps you'll learn something about it.”
f.a.n.n.y changed the subject to Sir John Corbett's laziness.
”A man,” said Mr. Waddington, ”without any seriousness, any sense of responsibility.”
After coffee Mr. Waddington removed f.a.n.n.y to the library to consult with him about the formation of his Committee, leaving Barbara and Ralph Bevan alone. f.a.n.n.y waved her hand to them from the doorway, signalling her blessing on their unrestrained communion.
”It's deplorable,” said Ralph, ”to see a woman of f.a.n.n.y's intelligence mixing herself up with a rotten scheme like that.”
”Poor darling, she only does it to keep him quiet.”
”Oh, yes, I admit there's every excuse for her.”
They looked at each other and smiled. A smile of delicious and secret understanding.
”Isn't he wonderful?” she said.
”I thought you'd like him.... I say, you know, I _must_ come to his meeting. He'll be more wonderful than ever there. Can't you see him?”
”I can. It's almost _too_ much--to think that I should be allowed to know him, to live in the same house with him, to have him turning himself on by the hour together. What have I done to deserve it?”
”I see,” he said, ”you _have_ got it.”
”Got what?”
”The taste for him. The genuine pa.s.sion. I had it when I was here. I couldn't have stood it if I hadn't.”
”I know. You must have had it. You've got it now.”
”And I don't suppose I've seen him anything like at his best. You'll get more out of him than I did.”