nts, and were usually able, by a happy tradition
inherited from our founder, to hold them suspended in a temporary
harmony. Then there was Cantilupe, who had recently retired from
public life, and whose name, perhaps, is already beginning to be
forgotten. Of younger men we had Allison, who, though still engaged in
business, was already active in his socialist propaganda. Angus
MacCarthy, too, was there, a man whose tragic end at Saint Petersburg
is still fresh in our minds. And there were others of less note;
Wilson, the biologist, Professor Martin, Coryat, the poet, and one or
two more who will be mentioned in their place.

After dinner, the time of year being June, and the weather unusually
warm, we adjourned to the terrace for our coffee and cigars. The air
was so pleasant and the prospect so beautiful, the whole weald of
Sussex lying before us in the evening light, that it was suggested we
should hold our meeting there rather than indoors. This was agreed.
But it then transpired that Cantilupe, who was to have read the paper,
had brought nothing to read. He had forgotten, or he had been too
busy. At this discovery there was a general cry of protest.
Cantilupe's proposition that we should forgo our discussion was
indignantly scouted; and he was pressed to improvise something on the
lines of what he had intended to write. This, however, he steadily
declined to attempt; and it seemed as though the debate would fall
through, until it occurred to me to intervene in my capacity as
chairman.

"Cantilupe," I said, "certainly ought to be somehow penalized. And
since he declines to improvise a paper, I propose that he improvise a
speech. He is accustomed to doing that; and since he has now retired
from public life, this may be his last opportunity. Let him employ it,
then, in doing penance. And the penance I impose is, that he should
make a personal confession. That he should tell us why he has been a
politician, why he has been, and is, a Tory, and why he is now retiring
in the prime of life. I propose, in a word, that he should give us his
point of view. That will certainly provoke Remenham, on whom I shall
call next. He will provoke someone else. And so we shall all find
ourselves giving our points of view, and we ought to have a very
interesting evening." This suggestion was greeted, if not with
enthusiasm, at least with acquiescence. Cantilupe at first objected
strongly, but yielded to pressure, and