y
solicitor, about my affairs.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Oh, Lor', pa--another!

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

You have it upside down.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Everything connected with our affairs _will_ get that way.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Mason is imperative.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

He insists upon your considering your pecuniary position.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

What shall I do?

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Accede to his request--consider it.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

But I am constantly considering it!

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Hush, pa!

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

No man's pecuniary position has ever demanded or received more
consideration than my own. Day and night my pecuniary position lashes my
brain into the consistency of a whipped egg.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Pa, be calm!

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Kate, my pecuniary position interposes between me and grave public
questions. My very spectacles are toned by it. It is in every blue-book,
in every page of Hansard, in the preamble of every Bill.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Oh, dear pa!

Sir Julian Twombley.

It sits with me in committees, accompanies me into the lobbies; it
receives deputations, replies to questions in the House; it forms part
of the deliberations of the Cabinet. It warps my political sympathies;
it distorts my judgment; it obscures my eloquence, and it lames my
logic! [Taking the letter from LADY TWOMBLEY.] And Mason--asks--me--to
consider it!

[Leans his head on his hands. She sits on the arm of his chair.]

LADY TWOMBLEY.

[Tearfully.] Julian, you--mustn't--give way. Suppose the members of the
Opposition saw you like this.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

[With a groan.] Oh!

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Think of those persons who sit--where is it?--on the hatchway--or below
the gangway, or some uncomfortable place. How rejoiced they'd be!
[Shaking him gently.] Have courage, Julian--perk up, pa dear.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

I cannot go on, Kitty.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Oh, don't say that!

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Mason's letter decides me.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

To do what!

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Yield to a sentiment which I have reason to believe exists on both sides
of the House----

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Resign?

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Resign my place in the Ministry--ask for the Chiltern Hundreds----

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Oh!

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Wind up my affairs in town----

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Oh, no!

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

And seek peace in rural retirement.

LADY TWOMBLEY.