I Forbid the Banns! — page 281: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ON THE FIRST CLOUD. 277 taken place during the session, and assuring their readers that it was mainly devoted to a financial question, not wholly unconnected with the buying out of the Irish landlords. Sir Iicroyd had declared to her, Bertha said, that it was cer- tainly the most successful council he had ever attended, for he had made eleven shillings in the course of the afternoon. He should have made very much more, only that the Scotch secretary, who had eventually become interested in the game, joined in at a time when nine shillings remained out- side the hat—in the pool, so to speak. He said he had not a shilling about him, but if they would let him throw a six- pence instead he would join in. The Chancellor of the Exchequer naturally held out for the shilling, but all the others agreed to let the sixpence be thrown. ‘The first throw was lucky, and the Scotch minister picked up the nine shillings and his own sixpence, and said it was time to go home, otherwise the people might think that there were seri- ous dissensions in the cabinet. “T asked him if cabinet councils were always like that,” continued Bertha ; ‘‘and he said that that one was quite an exception. ‘The fact was that some of the ministers were old and not particularly brisk on their legs. The younger think it their duty to give way in all matters to them, and only introduce something in which they can all join on a common footing. Onthe whole, Sir Ecroyd said he thought that the safest thing for a cabinet council was a pen dart game. They get a sheet of thick paper and draw on it an outline of the leader of the opposition. They put it ona blotting pad, and lean it up against a dispatch box, and then throw quill pens at it, which always fly point foremost. They lay down a shilling for every shot, and whoever suc- ceeds in hitting him on the mouth gets the pool. They call the game Shutting up the Opposition., It is extremely popular. I never was so much amused in all my life,” con- tinued Bertha. “Sir Ecroyd told it all with such solemnity, CORMMIELIOOKS (E)