“I am astonished at you, Annabel. Are you also in danger of changing your opinions?”
“I am astonished at myself, Duchess. My opinions are movable; but I have not yet changed them. Truth, however, belongs to all sides, and I cannot avoid seeing things as they are.”
“That is, as young Atheling and Cecil North show them to you.”
“Lord Exham has still more frequent opportunities of showing me the course of events. I have ‘influences’ on both sides, you see, Duchess; but, after all, I form my own opinions.”
“Reform will never be accomplished. The people must follow the nobles, as surely as the thread follows the needle.”
“I have ceased to prophesy. Anything can happen in a long enough time; and I often heard my father say that, ‘They who care and dare may do as they like.’ I think the Reform party both ‘care’ and ‘dare.’”
“Have you fallen in love with Cecil North, or with Mr. Atheling?”
“I am in love with Annabel Vyner. I worship none of the idols that have been set up, either by Tories or Reformers. Men who talk politics are immensely stupid. I shall marry a man who is a good fighter. Mere talkers are like barking dogs. Why don’t these Reformers stop whimpering, and fly like a bull dog at the throat of their wrongs? Then I should go with them, heart and soul and purse.”
“You are talking now for talking’s sake, Annabel. You are actually advocating civil war.”
“Am I really? Well, war is man’s natural condition. It takes churches, and priests, and standing armies, and constables always on hand, to keep peace in any sort of fashion. We are all barbarians under our clothes,–just civilised on the top.”