d. But Titherington, with
a rudeness which made me really like him, again told her to go away
because we were talking business. After I had drunk the champagne I
began to feel that McMeekin might have been right after all. I was
slightly better. Titherington put the empty bottle in the pocket of
his overcoat and packed up the eleven full bottles in the bag again. He
locked the bag and then pushed it as far as he could under my bed with
his foot. He knew, just as well as I did, that either the nurse or
McMeekin would steal the champagne if they saw it lying about.

"Now," he said, "you're not feeling so chippy."

"No, I'm not. Tell me about Miss Beresford's speech."

"It began well," said Titherington. "It began infernally well. She
stood up and, without by your leave or with your leave, said that all
politicians were damned liars."

"Damned?"

"Well, bloody," said Titherington, with the air of a man who makes a
concession.

"Was Hilda there?"

"She was, cheering like mad, the same as the rest of us."

"I'm sorry for that. Hilda is, or was, a nice, innocent girl. Her mother
won't like her hearing that sort of language."

"Bloody wasn't the word she used," said Titherington, "but she gave us
all the impression that it was what she meant!"

"Go on."

"Of course I thought, in fact we all thought, that she was referring to
Vittie and O'Donoghue, especially Vittie. The boys at the back of the
hall, who hate Vittie worse than the devil, nearly raised the roof off
with the way they shouted. I could see that McMeekin didn't half like
it. He's rather given himself away by supporting Vittie. Well, as long
as the cheering went on Miss Beresford stood and smiled at them. She's
a remarkably well set up girl so the boys went on cheering just for
the pleasure of looking at her. When they couldn't cheer any more she
started off to prove what she said. She began with O'Donoghue and she
got in on him. She had a list as long as your arm of the whoppers he
and the rest of that pack of blackguards are perpetually ramming down
people's throats. Home Rule, you know, and all that sort of blasted rot.
Then she took the skin off Vittie for about ten minutes. Man, but it
would have done you good to hear her. The most innocent sort of remark
Vittie ever made in his life she got a twist on it so that it came out
a regular howling lie. She finished him off by saying that Ananias and
Sapphira were a gentleman and a lady compared to the o