"By cripps!" cried Grice, "that's good. Did you make it up yourself, my lord?"
"No," said Stranleigh. "I am merely mutilating some lines by the late Lord Macaulay. Our friend the grocer doesn't seem happy after his victory."
"Why," said Bennet, "it's an amazing situation. I am a Tory, as my father was, and as my grandfather was, but here's a body elected by the Radical vote, and here's a member of the aristocracy, an absentee landlord, of whom we hear so much, has spent thousands of pounds for the improvement of the neighbourhood and the comfort of the poorest paid working section of the community. And who opposes this? The Tories? Not a bit of it! The Council elected by Radical vote; elected by the very men to whom they now say, 'Back you go into your old, unhealthy rooms. These new cottages are too good for you'!"
As they passed the assembly in front of the new house they heard the perturbed grocer say:
"We're not going to touch it; we're not going to pull it down. It's Lord Stranleigh himself who'll do that, because he didn't abide by the law. 'Tain't us as is to blame; it's the law. We be merely carrying out the law, and it's to the Houses of Parliament you should go if you want the law amended. We be powerless in the face of the law."
