The Man in Possession — page 181: what you’re looking at

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

176 THE MAN IN POSSESSION, to grievances and impositions and burdens of all sorts that you dont feel them. I guess you do want wak- ing up!” ‘You should send an army of reformers like your- self to perform that office,” sneered Lady Westmore- land. Mrs. Lafaye’s bright eyes ‘‘ fixed ” her on the spot. ‘‘I guess it wouldn't be much use,” she said. ‘‘You’re too fond of hibernating. So we can only spare time to show you an example.” ‘‘But you are so frighfully energetic,” said a man’s voice from the background. He was a member of . Parliament, and had for years distinguished himself by never opening his lips except to vote with his party. ‘“You tear and rush and seize upon innovations, and practise all sorts of experiments. It couldn’t be done here. The country wouldn't stand it.” ‘« The country would stand it fast enough if its rulers and leaders had the pluck or the energy to try it,” answered Mrs. Lafaye. ‘‘ But when the Tories are in, all they want to do is to keep the Whigs out; and when the Whigs are in they just want to stay, and so, between them, nothing’s done, and the country is as badly off with the one side as the other.” ‘‘Pardon me,” said Lady Westmoreland severely, ‘‘but surely a democratic person coming from the very centre of Republicanism is scarcely a judge of our time-honoured and long-proved legislature.” ‘‘That’s just what that person zs,” said Mrs. La- faye, laughing. ‘‘The new eyes are quicker than the old—the young brains create while the old plod. And your country is real like an old half-paralytic COMicloe (Sri C(O)