“You are going too far and too fast, Katherine.”
“Father ought to have been in the House on the third of February and it is now the seventh of March: Is that right?”
“A great many landed men will not go to this session. The Reform Bill, re-written by Lord Russell, is to come up again and father does not want to vote either for, or against it.”
“Why?”
“He hes his reasons. I doan’t know that his reasons are any business of thine.”
“Harry Bradley was explaining things to me this morning, and I am for the Reform Bill. I am sure the people are right.”
“I wouldn’t say as much on thy opinion. Wisdom wasn’t born wi’ thee and I doan’t expect she will die wi’ thee. I think if thou went to London this spring thou would make more enemies than thou could manage. Father is following my advice in staying home, and London isn’t a fit place for a young girl like thee and the way there is full of rioters. Thy father is a landed man and he doesn’t believe in giving every weaver and hedger and ditcher a voice in the government of England.”
“Harry Bradley says, some of their leaders and speakers are very clever eloquent men.”
“I wouldn’t talk nonsense after Harry Bradley. Who’s Harry Bradley?”
“He is my friend, mother. We have been friends nearly twenty years.”