"
"Then you do take some part in town life?"
"Most exceptional thing. I must have refused to lecture and to
chairmanize twenty times. But those fellows are persistent; they
caught me in a weak moment a few days ago. I suppose you realize the
kind of speechifying that would be expected of you? Are you prepared
to blaze away against Beaconsfield, and all that sort of thing?"
"I'm not afraid. There are more sides to my character than you
suppose."
Eustace spoke excitedly, and tossed off a glass of liqueur. His
manner had become more youthful than of wont; his face showed more
colour.
"The fact is," he went on, "if I talk politics at all, I can manage
the Radical standpoint much more easily than the Tory. I have
precious little sympathy with anything popular, that's true; but
it's easier for me to adopt the heroic strain of popular leaders
than to put my own sentiments into the language of squires and
parsons. I should feel I was doing a baser thing if I talked vulgar
Toryism than in roaring the democratic note. Do you understand?"
"I have an inkling of what you mean."
Eustace refilled the little glass.
"Of course," he went on, "my true life stands altogether outside
popular contention. I am an artist, though only half-baked But I
admit most heartily that our form of government is a good one--the
most favourable that exists to individual freedom.
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