--No. II
"If I see a man hungry in the street," said the Senator, instigated
by the question asked him at the end of the last chapter, "and give
him a bit of bread, I don't do it for my own sake but for his." Up
to this time the Britishers around him on the platform and those in
the benches near to him, had received what he said with a good
grace. The allusion to Lord Lambswool had not been pleasant to
them, but it had not been worse than they had expected. But now
they were displeased. They did not like being told that they were
taking a bit of bread from him in their own political destitution.
They did not like that he, an individual, should presume that he
had prayer to offer to them as a nation. And yet, had they argued
it out in their own minds, they would have seen that the Senator's
metaphor was appropriate. His purpose in being there was to give
advice, and theirs in coming to listen to it. But it was
unfortunate. "When I ventured to come before you here, I made all
this my business," continued the Senator. Then he paused and
glanced round the hall with a defiant look. "And now about your
House of Lords," he went on. "I have not much to say about the
House of Lords, because if I understand rightly the feeling of this
country it is already condemned." "No such thing." "Who told you
that?" "You know nothing about it" These and other words of curt
denial came from the distant corners, and a slight murmur of
disapprobation was heard even from the seats on the platform.
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