"I'm not going to be hectored!" Mr. Henslow declared.
"Nobody wants to hector you! You gave certain pledges to us, and you have not fulfilled one of them."
"They won't let me. I'm not here as an independent Member. I'm here as a Liberal, and Sir Henry himself struck out my proposed question and motion. I must go with the Party."
"You know quite well," Brooks said, "that you are within your rights in keeping the pledges you made to the mass meeting at Medchester."
Henslow shook his head.
"It would be no good," he declared. "I've sounded lots of men about it. I myself have not changed. I believe in some measure of protection. I am a firm believer in it. But the House wouldn't listen to me. The times are not ripe for anything of the sort yet."
"How do you know until you try?" Brooks protested. "Your promise was to bring the question before Parliament in connection with the vast and increasing number of unemployed. You are within your rights in doing so, and to speak frankly we insist upon it, or we ask for your resignation."
"Are you speaking with authority, young man?" Mr. Henslow asked.
"Of course I am. I am the representative of the Liberal Parliamentary
Committee, and I am empowered to say these things to you, and more.
"Well, I'll do the best I can to get a date," Mr. Henslow said, grumblingly, "but you fellows are always in such a hurry, and you don't understand that it don't go up here. We have to wait our time month after month sometimes."