"You don't mean, Corbett, that you won't come in with us? That you won't come on the Committee?"
"I'll come on all right if I haven't got to speak, and if I haven't got to do anything. I shan't be much good, but I could at least propose you as president. You couldn't very well propose yourself."
"It's very good of you."
Mr. Waddington made his voice sound casual and indifferent, so that he might appear to be entertaining the suggestion provisionally and under protest. "There'll have to be one big meeting before the Committee's formed or anything. If I let you off the presidency," he said playfully, "will you take the chair?"
"For that one evening?"
"That one evening only."
"You'll do all the talking?"
"I shall have to."
"All right, my dear fellow. I daresay I can get my wife to come on your committee, too. That'll help you to rope in the townspeople…. And now, supposing we drop it and have a quiet smoke."
He roused himself to one more effort. "Of course, we'll send you a subscription, both of us."