Islao nudged Busyong to get him to come out of the store.
"Come, come, let us go home, lest we hurt with our laughing their susceptible feelings, especially of that young dandy—pardon me, I mean doctor," said Islao aside to Busyong when they reached the corner of a street and turned to the left.
"O Momus, son of Mox!" exclaimed Busyong smiling after a short time, "how jocund indeed must you be with the people here!"
"Surely, he must be," said Islao.
"By the way, I remember that the tailor—that is, the fat man—seemed to boast a political party."
"Oh, yes!"
"What is that party?"
"It is called the National Talukap Party. You know, this country is a democracy in name, but an oligarchy in fact, as the people here say, for the government is in the hands of only a very few of the native countrymen; most of the power is in foreign hands. So the Talukap party aims to reverse the condition of things; nay, to have the control of the government wholly in the hands of the people of this country. I am warmly in favor of this policy. But what I do find objectionable in this Talukap party is their affectation and tautology, and their pretension and empty show in their outward conduct. For my part, I believe in doing things silently but effectively. On the other hand, I am not in favor of the other party, which is called the National Kinagisnan Party, whose policy is to be contented slavishly with the present condition of things or with whatever condition for the time being. The people who belong to this Kinagisnan party are very few in comparison with those that belong to the Talukap party. Being in very close contact with the sovereign, the Kinagisnan people are very apt to become flatterers."
"Moreover, the ideal of your Talukap party, I think, becomes less feasible, if not impossible, when you consider these dandies like those two chums over there who are clasping one another by the waist. Indeed, they live in a very peculiar world by themselves."
"And with Momus, I suppose, as their Supreme Being."