O'Connell. You have sent for me, Lord Horsham?
Horsham. I hope that by my message I conveyed no impression of sending for you.
O'Connell. I am always in some doubt as to by what person or persons in or out of power this country is governed. But from all I hear you are at the present moment approximately entitled to send for me.
The level music of his Irish tongue seems to give finer edge to his sarcasm.
Horsham. Well, Mr. O'Connell ... you know our request before we make it.
O'Connell. Yes, I understand that if the fact of Mr. Trebell's adultery with my wife were made as public as its consequences to her must be to-morrow, public opinion would make it difficult for you to include him in your cabinet.
Horsham. Therefore we ask you ... though we have no right to ask you ... to consider the particular circumstances and forget the man in the statesman, Mr. O'Connell.
O'Connell. My wife is dead. What have I to do at all with Mr. Trebell as a man? As a statesman I am in any case uninterested in him.
Upon this throwing of cold water, Edmunds returns to mention even more discreetly....
Edmunds. Mr. Blackborough is in the library, my lord.