've
got weak, till they says: 'Look 'ere, it's no go; Public Opinion won't
stand it. We shall be outed; and that'll never do, because there's
no other set of fellows that can save this country.' Then they 'ave a
meetin' and change their policy. And what they've never seen is that
they've never seen Public Opinion at all. All they've seen is what the
U.P. let 'em. Now if I was the Gover'ment, I'd 'ave it out once for all
with the U. P."

"Ah!" cried Mr. Lavender, whose eyes were starting from his, head, so
profoundly was he agitated by what was to him a new thought.

"Yes," continued Joe, "if I was the Gover'ment, next time it 'appened,
I'd say: 'All right, old cock, do your damnedest. I ain't responsible to
you. Attack, suppress, and all the rest of it. We're goin' to do what
we say, all the same!' And then I'd do it. And what'd come of it? Either
the U.P. would go beyond the limits of the Law--and then I'd jump on it,
suppress its papers, and clap it into quod--or it'd take it lyin' down.
Whichever 'appened it'd be all up with the U. P. I'd a broke its chain
off my neck for good. But I ain't the Gover'ment, an Gover'ment's got
tender feet. I ask you, sir, wot's the good of havin' a Constitooshion,
and a the bother of electing these fellows, if they can't act according
to their judgment for the short term of their natural lives? The U.P.
may be patriotic and estimable, and 'ave the best intentions and all
that, but its outside the Constitooshion; and what's more, I'm not goin'
to spend my last blood an' my last money in a democratic country to suit
the tastes of any single man, or triumpherate, or wotever it may be made
of. If the Government's uncertain wot the country wants they can always
ask it in the proper way, but they never ought to take it on 'earsay
from the papers. That's wot I think."

While he was speaking Mr. Lavender had become excited to the point of
fever, for, without intending it, Joe had laid bare to him a yawning
chasm between his worship of public men and his devotion to the Press.
And no sooner had his chauffeur finished than he cried: "Leave me, Joe,
for I must think this out."

"Right, sir," answered Joe with his smile, and taking the tea-tray from
off his master, he set it where it must infallibly be knocked over, and
went out.

"Can it be possible," thought Mr. Lavender, when he was alone, "that
I am serving God and Mammon? And which is God and which is Mammon?" he
added, letting his thou