to throw away all the
liberties of Englishmen by accepting universal Compulsory military
service without insisting on full civil rights for the soldier--

MITCHENER. Rot.

BALSQUITH. --I said that no British officer would be capable of abusing
the authority with which it was absolutely necessary to invest him.

MITCHENER. Quite right.

BALSQUITH. That carried the House and carried the country--

MITCHENER. Naturally.

BALSQUITH. --And the feeling was that the Labor Party were soulless
cads.

MITCHENER. So they are.

BALSQUITH. And now comes this unmannerly young whelp Chubbs-Jenkinson,
the only son of what they call a soda king, and orders a curate to lick
his boots. And when the curate punches his head, you first sentence him
to be shot; and then make a great show of clemency by commuting it to a
flogging. What did you expect the curate to do?

MITCHENER (throwing down his pen and his letters and jumping up to
confront Balsquith). His duty was perfectly simple. He should have
obeyed the order; and then laid his complaint against the officer in
proper form. He would have received the fullest satisfaction.

BALSQUITH. What satisfaction?

MITCHENER. Chubbs-Jenkinson would have been reprimanded. In fact, he
WAS reprimanded. Besides, the man was thoroughly insubordinate. You
cant deny that the very first thing he did when they took him down after
flogging him was to walk up to Chubbs-Jenkinson and break his jaw. That
showed there was no use flogging him; so now he will get two years hard
labor; and serve him right.

BALSQUITH. I bet you a guinea he wont get even a week. I bet you another
that Chubbs-Jenkinson apologizes abjectly. You evidently havent heard
the news.

MITCHENER. What news?

BALSQUITH. It turns out that the curate is well connected. (Mitchener
staggers at the shock. Speechless he contemplates Balsquith with a wild
and ghastly stare; then reels into his chair and buries his face in his
hands over the blotter. Balsquith continues remorselessly, stooping
over him to rub it in.) He has three aunts in the peerage; and Lady
Richmond's one of them; (Mitchener utters a heartrending groan) and
they all adore him. The invitations for six garden parties and fourteen
dances have been cancelled for all the subalterns in Chubbs's regiment.
Is it possible you havent heard of it?

MITCHENER. Not a word.

BALSQUITH (shaking his head). I suppose nobody dared to tell you. (He
sits down carelessly on Mitch