"If you maintain it too long, you'll never get an office," he said, "and so the only work you'll be able to do will be critical work: you'll never get a chance to do anything constructive; and if you let the Government nobble you, and give you an Under Secretaryship the moment they see you getting dangerous, then you're done for. And anyhow, I don't believe in independent members of parliament. A certain number of sheep are necessary in every organisation, in parliament as much as anywhere else. It would be absolutely impossible to carry on Government if the whole six hundred and seventy members of parliament were as clever and as independent as Lord Hugh Cecil. You must have sheep and lots of 'em!..."
"But they needn't be dead sheep," said Roger. "They needn't be mutton, need they?"
"No, they needn't be mutton, but they must be sheep," Gilbert replied.
"All the politicians I've ever met," said Ninian, "were like New Zealand lamb ... frozen!"
Gilbert leaped on him and slapped his back, capsizing him on to the floor. "Ninian, my son," he said, "that's a good line. Do you mind if I put it in my comedy. It doesn't matter whether you do or not, but I'd like your consent."
"Don't be an old ass," said Ninian.
"Can I use that line about the New Zealand lamb?..."
"Yes, yes ... any damn thing ... only get off my chest! You're ... you're squeezing the inside out of me. Get up, will you!..."
"I'm really quite comfortable, thanks, Ninian. If it weren't for this whacking big bone here!..."
He did not complete the sentence, for Ninian, with a heaving effort, threw him on to the floor, where they scrambled and punched each other....