“Hangs round the House a good deal, trying to put something over for her husband, I’ve heard.”
“You’re remarkably well informed, Billy,” mocked the older man.
“Did you ever know her before?” asked the unabashed Howarth.
Sullivan confessed to a previous acquaintance. “Her mother’s first husband was my sister’s brother-in-law. So, you see, she’s a sort of relation.”
“Not too close to be interesting,” observed Turner, who had his private opinion about Sullivan’s relations. “Has she been sounded? Do you think she’ll take on the job?”
The Member for Morroway was hopeful, “provided,” he said, “she is not absorbed in any other emotional adventure. They are chronic.”
“Is that the only provision?” Howarth wanted to know.
“Well—er—as you, yourself, remarked, she seems to be determined to get Barrington a nice, cushioned berth in which he will be well protected against the rigours of enervating toil. I understand that she fancies the Chairmanship of the Improvement Commission.”
William Howarth, M.P., expressed relief, and the opinion that this was “pie”.
“We’ll just put little Augustus Pratt on the job,” he said. “How soon could we see the lady?”