This was rather irritating to the artist in phrases; because it stood to reason that the majority of his phrases were calculated to be hurtful to his opponents. He was thus quite elated when he came upon something which would, he felt sure, call comment in the press at the expense of the member from Wales without casting any slight upon Nonconformist Missionary enterprise.
He read out the thing to his daughter, and he was surprised to find that she was not appreciative of its unique charm. This was rather too bad, he felt, considering that it was she who had enlisted his services in this particular matter.
“I don’t think Mr. Courtland wants anybody to take his part in Parliament or out of it,” said she. “And that’s why I think it would be better to let that Mr. Apthomas ask his question without interruption. What can the Minister of Annexation say except that he has no information on the subject, and that if he had he could not interfere, as he had no jurisdiction on the Fly River?”
“That is what he will reply as a matter of course,” said her father. “But that will not prevent the newspapers that are on the side of Wales and the missionaries from saying what they please in the way of comment on the atrocities in New Guinea.”
“Mr. Courtland will not mind whatever they may say,” cried Phyllis.
“That was the view I took of the matter in regard to Mr. Courtland’s attitude when you mentioned it to me at first,” said he. “I didn’t suppose that he was the man to be broken down because some foolish paper attacks him; but you were emphatic in your denunciation of the injustice that would be liable to be done if—”
“Oh, I had only spoken for about half an hour to Mr. Courtland then,” said Phyllis. “I think I know him better now.”
“Yes, you have spoken with him for another half hour; you therefore know him twice as well as you did,” remarked her father. “I wonder if he admitted to you having done all that he was accused of doing.”
He saw in a moment from the little uneasy movement of her eyes that he had made an excellent guess at the general result of the conversation at Mrs. Linton’s little lunch. He had not yet succeeded in obtaining any details from his daughter regarding her visit to Ella. She had merely told him that Ella had kept her to lunch, and that Mr. Courtland had been there also.
“Yes. I do believe that he admitted everything,” he continued, with a laugh as he thought how clever he was. (He had frequent reasons for laughing that laugh.)