"As a member of the House of Lords," said Mr. Perry didactically, "he has a share in making laws which we all have to obey. It is not part of his duty to administer them."
"I beg your pardon," said Lord Arthur. "I don't like Potter, but I must stand up for him there. It is his duty as a member of the ruling class to interest himself in public behaviour. The House of Lords has been shorn of much of its powers, but the influence of its members remains."
"As the son of a peer, my dear Arthur," said Mr. Perry, "you are quite right to stand up for your order, and if every peer were like your father there would be no objection to their claiming such rights as Lord Potter, for instance, claims—to have free entry into every house, in order that he may satisfy himself that its occupants are behaving themselves as they should do. But we are a democratic country, and, as things stand now, such a claim as that must be resisted, however reasonable it may have been a hundred years ago."
"I don't know that I altogether agree with you there, Perry," said Mr. Blother. "I admit that it is intolerable that such a man as Potter should force an entrance into your house, however you may choose to live. But you would hardly object to a peer entering the establishment of a man, let us say, like Bolster—an admitted member of the lower classes."
"Edward would," said Tom. "He said the other day that however rich a man was he ought to be free from interference in his own house."
"Oh, but Edward is an advanced Socialist," said Lord Arthur. "He would deny that a peer was any better than anybody else."
"You would not go so far as to say, I suppose," said Mr. Blother, still addressing Mr. Perry, and at the same time handing him a mayonnaise of salmon, "that the House of Lords did not know what was good for the people—the common people, I mean—better than they know themselves?"
"I should deny," said Mr. Perry, "that each member of the peerage knew better than each member of the proletariat what was best for him."
"If that is the case," said Lord Arthur, in some excitement, "I beg to give you a month's notice, Mr. Perry. I can cope with Edward, but if you are going to preach revolutionary views it is time I looked out for another situation. I only took service here because my father said that your political views were sound at bottom, although you went farther than he approved of in many ways."
"Oh, dear Lord Arthur!" said Mrs. Perry in her pleasant sensible voice, "you know that you mustn't take everything that my husband says literally. I am sure that he only means that peers who have no official position should be careful how they exercise their rights over other people."