s, we crowd the
Indian prisons with the noblest and most enlightened of the Indian
race, and we call it Empire building!"

"No, we don't," said Mr. Cargill stoutly, "we call it common-sense.
That is the penal and repressive side of any great activity. D'ye mean
to tell me that you never give your maid a good hearing? But would you
like it to be said that you spent the whole of your days swearing at
the wumman?"

"I never swore in my life," said Lady Lavinia.

"I spoke metaphorically," said Mr. Cargill. "If ye cannot understand a
simple metaphor, ye cannot understand the rudiments of politics."

Picture to yourself a prophet who suddenly discovers that his God is
laughing at him, a devotee whose saint winks and tells him that the
devotion of years has been a farce, and you will get some idea of Lady
Lavinia's frame of mind. Her sallow face flushed, her lip trembled,
and she slewed round as far as her chair would permit her. Meanwhile
Mr. Cargill, redder than before, went on contentedly with his dinner.

I was glad when my aunt gave the signal to rise. The atmosphere was
electric, and all were conscious of it save the three Ministers,
Deloraine, and Miss Claudia. Vennard seemed to be behaving very badly.
He was arguing with Caerlaverock down the table, and the ex-Viceroy's
face was slowly getting purple. When the ladies had gone, we remained
oblivious to wine and cigarettes, listening to this heated controversy
which threatened any minute to end in a quarrel.

The subject was India, and Vennard was discussing on the follies of all
Viceroys.

"Take this idiot we've got now," he declared. "He expects me to be a
sort of wet-nurse to the Government of India and do all their dirty
work for them. They know local conditions, and they have ample powers
if they would only use them, but they won't take an atom of
responsibility. How the deuce am I to decide for them, when in the
nature of things I can't be half as well informed about the facts!"

"Do you maintain," said Caerlaverock, stuttering in his wrath, "that
the British Government should divest itself of responsibility for the
governement of our great Indian Dependency?"

"Not a bit," said Vennard impatiently; "of course we are responsible,
but that is all the more reason why the fellows who know the business
at first hand should do their duty. If I am the head of a bank I am
responsible for its policy, but that doesn't mean that every local
bank-manage