Page:The council of seven.djvu/197

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it out if it doesn't please him, but in the last three weeks one's eyes have been opened to many things. And if the Breit Combine joins with the U. P. as you declare it will, my own country will be in the same plight."

"Yes," said John Endor, "now you really see the malignant growth that lies at the very root of the Anglo-Saxon world. There can be no hope of a stable peace while this king of all grafters is free to go on. Well, thank God, the eyes of some of us are open at last. I'll go down to the House this afternoon and air my voice if I get a chance."

"Do," she said. "All power to it. Meanwhile, I'll go and look for a little house. There are five hundred pounds in my stocking—did I tell you?—his money, alas!—but I hope honestly earned."

John took from his pocket a sheaf of notes written in pencil. Much new material had come to him in the course of the week-end at Doe Hill for the speech he was meditating in the House of Commons. "But don't let us deceive ourselves," he said. "They are not in the least likely to listen to a private member. Strong as this indictment is it will impress neither the Cabinet nor the rank and file. They are men of straw. The U. P. put them where they are and it can remove them to-morrow. At least, they believe it can. Shade of Gladstone and Bright! Shade of Burke and Pitt! that a newspaper trust should have them all in its pocket."