MAGGIE. Yes; twenty-six pages. [She produces it from a drawer.]
[Perhaps JOHN wishes to impress the visitor.]
JOHN. I’m to give the ladies’ committee a general idea of it. Just see, Maggie, if I know the peroration. ‘In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, these are the reasonable demands of every intelligent Englishwoman’—I had better say British woman—‘and I am proud to nail them to my flag’—-
[The visitor is properly impressed.]
COMTESSE. Oho! defies his leaders!
JOHN. ‘So long as I can do so without embarrassing the Government.’
COMTESSE. Ah, ah, Mr. Shand!
JOHN. ‘I call upon the Front Bench, sir, loyally but firmly’—
COMTESSE. Firm again!
JOHN. —‘either to accept my Bill, or to promise WITHOUT DELAY to bring in one of their own; and if they decline to do so I solemnly warn them that though I will not press the matter to a division just now’—