'Did you mean you are "ready" to do that?' she exclaimed.
'An hour ago I was.'
'Ah! an hour ago!'
'Exactly! You don't understand men. They can be led; they can't be driven. Ten minutes before you came into the room I was ready to say I would throw in my political lot with this Reform.'
'And now?'
'Now you block my way by an attempt at coercion. By forcing my hand you give my adherence an air of bargain-driving for a personal end. Exactly the mistake of the ignorant agitators in Trafalgar Square. You have a great deal to learn. This movement will go forward, not because of the agitation outside, but in spite of it. There are men in Parliament who would have been actively serving the Reform to-day—as actively as so vast a constitutional change——'
She smiled faintly. 'And they haven't done it because——'
'Because it would have put a premium on breaches of decent behaviour and defiance of the law!'
She looked at him with an attempt to appear to accept this version. What did it matter what reasons were given for past failure, if only the future might be assured? He had taken a piece of crumpled paper from his pocket and smoothed it out.
'Look here!' He held the telegram before her.