CANTELUPE. [_A little comforted._] But I shall miss one or two of those
ideas ...
HORSHAM. [_So pleasantly sceptical._] Do you think they'd have outlasted the
second reading? Dullness in the country one expects. Dullness in the House
one can cope with. But do you know, I have never sat in a cabinet yet that
didn't greet anything like a new idea in chilling silence.
CANTELUPE. Well, I should regret to have caused you trouble, Cyril.
HORSHAM. [_His hand on the other's shoulder._] Oh ... we don't take politics
so much to heart as that, I hope.
CANTELUPE. [_With sweet gravity._] I take politics very much to heart. Yes,
I know what you mean ... but that's the sort of remark that makes people
call you cynical. [HORSHAM _smiles as if at a compliment and starts with_
CANTELUPE _towards the door._ CANTELUPE, _who would not hurt his feelings,
changes the subject._] By the bye, I'm glad we met this evening! Do you hear
Aunt Mary wants to sell the Burford Holbein? Can she?
HORSHAM. [_Taking as keen, but no keener, an interest in this than in the
difficulty he has just surmounted._] Yes, by the will she can, but she
mustn't. Dear me, I thought I'd put a stop to that foolishness. Well now, we
must take that matter up very seriously ...
_They go out talking arm in arm._
THE FOURTH ACT
At TREBELL'S again; later, the same evening.
_His room is in darkness but for the flicker the fire makes and the streaks
of moonlight between the curtains.
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