[At this point the Committee consulted. After a little whispering Mr. Balfour explained with the utmost gentleness that there had been a mistake. The summons should have been sent to Lord Rustentown, the well-known ironfounder, money-lender, newspaper-proprietor, and supporter of the Government. If any apology of his⸺]
Witness in a towering passion declared that the fault lay with this Government and their accursed folly in flooding the country with new peers and letting them take any accursed name they fancied. In the course of his remarks witness struck his game foot with his stick, and thereupon became so violent that he was compelled to retire.
There succeeded a dignified silence of some few minutes, at the close of which Lord Halsbury said:
His lordship then rose to his full height and strode solemnly out of the room.
Mr. Gerald Balfour was the next to leave. He hurried through the door without a word. The Prime Minister followed him, talking to himself.
Lord Lansdowne smiled a little anxiously, looked right and left at his colleagues, tapped on the table with his fingers, and then got up in his turn and went out in a thoughtful manner.
Throughout this painful scene Mr. Chamberlain sat immovable, with a fixed stare and with set lips. At last, in a tone of characteristic energy and resource, he broke the silence with the cry of “Next!” But in the universal uncertainty and alarm no one responded to the summons.
The unnatural tension was relaxed by the abrupt departure of the three remaining members of the Court, Mr. Austen Chamberlain preceding his father, the Duke of Marlborough following his chief.