“gentlemen,—”
“I need not remind you that among the Urbans—”
“are to be found some of the most hideous types of ugliness imaginable—what we need is—”
”—a little common sense to enable us to tell the difference between shams—”
”—like ourselves and the baboons, which is not always easy. In conclusion, gentlemen, I beg to point to our—”
”—dirty hands and faces, which no one who is really interested in hunting for remains of his native—”
”—ugliness ought to be ashamed of.”
And so on.
We were too busy cheering our own orator and listening to the enemy’s to take in the full humour of the medley at the time. The opening speeches were evidently prepared beforehand (a good part of them possibly copied bodily out of some book). But, as soon as the chairman on either side declared the subject open for discussion, the interest thickened.
Flitwick led off on “Remains,” whereas it fell to my lot to reply on “Beauty.” By a little sharp practice, I got the lead, which, as it happened, turned out more to the enemy’s profit than my own.