登陆注册
5253200000020

第20章

"You are all old-fashioned-and stiff with prejudice," Furley declared. "Even Orden," he went on, turning to Catherine, "only tolerates me because we ate dinners off the same board when we were' both making up our minds to be Lord High Chancellor."

"Our friend Furley," Julian confided, as he leaned across the table and took a cigarette, "has no tact and many prejudices. He does write such rubbish about the aristocracy. I remember an article of his not very long ago, entitled `Out with our Peers!'

It's all very well for a younger son like me to take it lying down, but you could scarcely expect my father to approve.

Besides, I believe the fellow's a renegade. I have an idea that he was born in the narrower circles himself."

"That's where you're wrong, then," Furley grunted with satisfaction. "My father was a boot manufacturer in a country village of Leicestershire. I went in for the Bar because he left me pots of money, most of which, by the bye, I seem to have dissipated."

"Chiefly in Utopian schemes for the betterment of his betters,"

Julian observed drily.

"I certainly had an idea," Furley confessed, "of an asylum for incapable younger sons."

"I call a truce," Julian proposed. "It isn't polite to spar before Miss Abbeway."

"To me," Mr. Stenson declared, "this is a veritable temple of peace. I arrived here literally on all fours. Miss Abbeway has proved to me quite conclusively that as a democratic leader I have missed my vocation."

She looked at him reproachfully. Nevertheless, his words seemed to have brought back to her mind the thrill of their brief but stimulating conversation. A flash of genuine earnestness transformed her face, just as a gleam of wintry sunshine, which had found its way in through the open window, seemed to discover threads of gold in her tightly braided and luxuriant brown hair.

Her eyes filled with an almost inspired light:

"Mr. Stenson is scarcely fair to me," she complained. "I did not presume to criticise his statesmanship, only there are some things here which seem pitiful. England should be the ideal democracy of the world. Your laws admit of it, your Government admits of it.

Neither birth nor money are indispensable to success. The way is open for the working man to pass even to the Cabinet. And you are nothing of the sort. The cause of the people is not in any country so shamefully and badly represented. You have a bourgeoisie which maintains itself in almost feudal luxury by means of the labour which it employs, and that labour is content to squeak and open its mouth for worms, when it should have the finest fruits of the world. And all this is for want of leadership. Up you come you David Sands, you Phineas Crosses, you Nicholas Fenns, you Thomas Evanses. You each think that you represent Labour, but you don't. You represent trade - the workers at one trade. How they laugh at you, the men who like to keep the government of this country in their own possession! They stretch down a hand to the one who has climbed the highest, they pull him up into the Government, and after that Labour is well quit of him. He has found his place with the gods. Perhaps they will make him a `Sir' and his wife a `Lady,' but for him it is all over with the Cause. And so another ten years is wasted, while another man grows up to take his place."

"She's right enough," Furley confessed gloomily. "There is something about the atmosphere of the inner life of politics which has proved fatal to every Labour man who has ever climbed. Paul Fiske wrote the same thing only a few weeks ago. He thought that it was the social atmosphere which we still preserve around our politics. We no sooner catch a clever man, born of the people, than we dress him up like a mummy and put him down at dinner parties and garden parties, to do things he's not accustomed to, and expect him to hold his own amongst people who are not his people. There is something poisonous about it."

"Aren't you all rather assuming," Stenson suggested drily, "that the Labour Party is the only party in politics worth considering?"

"If they knew their own strength," Catherine declared, "they would be the predominant party. Should you like to go to the polls to-day and fight for your seats against them?"

"Heaven forbid!" Mr. Stenson exclaimed. "But then we've made up our mind to one thing - no general election during the war.

Afterwards, I shouldn't be at all surprised if Unionists and Liberals and even Radicals didn't amalgamate and make one party."

"To fight Labour," Furley said grimly.

"To keep England great," Mr. Stenson replied. "You must remember that so far as any scheme or program which the Labour Party has yet disclosed, in this country or any other, they are preeminently selfish. England has mighty interests across the seas. A parish-council form of government would very soon bring disaster."

Julian glanced at the clock and rose to his feet.

"I don't want to hurry any one," he said, "but my father is rather a martinet about luncheon."

They all rose. Mr. Stenson turned to Julian.

"Will you go on with Miss Abbeway?" he begged. "I will catch up with you on the marshes. I want to have just a word with Furley."

Julian and his companion crossed the country road and passed through the gate opposite on to the rude track which led down almost to the sea.

"You are very interested in English labour questions, Miss Abbeway," he remarked, "considering that you are only half an Englishwoman."

"It isn't only the English labouring classes in whom I am interested," she replied impatiently. "It is the cause of the people throughout the whole of the world which in my small way I preach."

"Your own country," he continued, a little diffidently, "is scarcely a good advertisement for the cause of social reform."

Her tone trembled with indignation as she answered him.

同类推荐
  • 林黛玉笔记

    林黛玉笔记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Aucassin and Nicolete

    Aucassin and Nicolete

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Plays and Puritans

    Plays and Puritans

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 醒世恒言

    醒世恒言

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 药鉴

    药鉴

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 封灵师传奇:宿舍有鬼2恶灵游戏

    封灵师传奇:宿舍有鬼2恶灵游戏

    305寝室的恐怖传闻,恶魔契约的交易,消失的日记,受害者身边接二连三的恐怖事件,奇怪的借读生……灵异事件不断折磨着高三毕业生李馨,昔日好友逐渐变得陌生,隐藏的凶手步步逼近。仇恨、嫉妒、阴谋,离奇事件反复上演,究竟谁才是真正的恶魔?眼看事实真相就要揭露,所有的猜测和推理全被推翻,怀疑对象一个个莫名死亡,她又该如何自保?
  • 俄罗斯通史:1917-1991

    俄罗斯通史:1917-1991

    本书以追求历史的原本和真实为职志,以历史发展的重要进程为线索,以各个历史时期的主要人物、重要事件和焦点问题为主题,即从沙皇俄国覆灭、十月革命爆发、苏俄政权建立、战时共产主义、新经济政策、工业化和集体化时期、苏联卫国战争、战后开启冷战、美苏全球争霸到最后的苏联解体,从斯大林、马林科夫、赫鲁晓夫、勃列日涅夫、安德罗波夫、契尔年科到最后的戈尔巴乔夫,条理清晰地叙述了1917年至1991年这段波澜壮阔、惊心动魄的历史,即苏联的历史。
  • 暗器

    暗器

    记着早上出门时母亲关照:“中午早点回来,帮我把桌子摆起来,我一个人拖不动。”林林一上午心不在焉。她去年才来这里上班。母亲先是嫌不是正式的,又嫌钱少,又嫌她过去读书不用心。然而,好歹这里给了她一张桌子。桌面很新,可角上不知被什么划了一道很深的口子。桌子跟人的脸一样,有了疤,就破了相。她想换一张,又觉得自己刚来,挑三拣四不那么好。她还是很珍惜这张桌子的。来了没多久就年底了,发台历的人也给了她一本。后来,陆陆续续又添了订书机、笔筒、印台、号码机,还有水生植物。一张办公桌应该有的慢慢都有了。
  • 深圳情未了

    深圳情未了

    性格要强的茹欣早年丧父,因不满足于小县城的工作,只身来到深圳打拼。屡受挫败后在金融公司做起前台,不久便传出跟公司高总发生暧昧,随后高总为其在邮轮公司谋得一份工作。茹欣自此一路风生水起,结识了大批社会权贵,最终也为其所伤。母亲意外离世的消息让她冒然觉醒;一次偶然的机会结识黎陌,以为遇得真爱,很快便深陷其中。后来才发现黎陌是一个吸毒成瘾的骗子,为此她牺牲了感情、也填空了所有积蓄。至此茹欣开始怀念过去的生活,但现实已经回不去;在无尽的悔恨中,她寄想于通过灯红酒绿式的生活来排遣内心的苦恼,后来才发现灵魂已被自己掏空。最终因抑郁不过,赶在自己生日的当晚跳入深圳湾
  • 黑心男人放开我

    黑心男人放开我

    张不悔原本是一个身世悲惨的少女,为了挣钱给弟弟小熊看病,用尽了各种手段,尝尽了个中滋味,可是命运的轮盘却又将她卷入了一场家族的暗战之中,碰上了腹黑男的她是否能摆脱命运的多舛,是否能走上幸福的道路。
  • 浪漫需要揭穿

    浪漫需要揭穿

    不是恋爱秘籍,没有恋爱宣言,这是一本揭穿虚伪“浪漫”的小书,采取独特视角,推崇从平淡生活中的“不浪漫”之中寻找真正的“浪漫”。全书分为三个部分,通过十则美好的爱情故事以及得以实现的诺言来重新构建一个浪漫世界。用简单踏实的小温馨代替飘浮虚幻的“小清新”,毕竟生活不仅仅是“看起来很美”,而要实际上很美。
  • 斗破苍穹之忍者系统

    斗破苍穹之忍者系统

    拥有与斗破苍穹主角相同名字的萧炎,却是因为长时间熬夜通宵猝死而意外的穿越到了斗破世界,还莫名其妙的被‘火影忍者系统’绑定,从此以后他便是踏上了一条犹如开挂一般成为强者的路途!“吹火掌!”“雕虫小技,看我火遁·豪火球术!”“地阶身法斗技,三千雷动!”“什么,居然是地阶的斗技,恐怖如斯!不过,你有瞬移快么?飞雷神之术!”“这可是你逼我的!斗帝之身!”“哦?有点意思,就是不知道与我的六道之体相比,孰强孰弱?!”
  • 盛世萌婚:老婆,乖一点

    盛世萌婚:老婆,乖一点

    “先生,结婚便宜,我请你可好?”第N次求婚被拒,她一怒之下,以非常手段把他搞定。殊不知,对方完全的腹黑、阴险、狡诈……从她此陷入水深火热之中。斗不过,她逃总可以吧?收拾行李打包走人,却被抓个现成!“不是结婚便宜吗?走,登记、度蜜月去!”
  • 淡定的智慧

    淡定的智慧

    淡定是心灵的修炼,是人生的境界和智慧。弘一法师修行,修得了一份淡定与超然。我们羡慕这份淡定,我们追求这种超然。淡定的智慧就像佛的修行,这种修行让一切回归内心,让人宠辱不惊。《淡定的智慧:弘一法师的人生幸福课》的文字中渗透着弘一法师的风骨和智慧,让浮躁的人们学会放下,告诉人们一切顺其自然便能宁静致远。它让人们在淡定中滋养心灵,在智慧中升华人生;它让人们的内心清澈如水;让生命重新回归平衡;让人们领悟到什么是真正的大彻大悟、超凡脱俗。
  • 特种魔法师

    特种魔法师

    特种兵穿越异界,把特种兵与魔法师相结合,带领一支特种魔法师小队称霸异界的故事