"They want dash and fire there," he said, "and these qualities must be united with good common sense. In addressing the House, you see, Thelma, one must rouse and interest the men--not bore them. You can't expect fellows to pass a Bill if you've made them long for their beds all the time you've been talking about it."
Thelma smiled and glanced over his shoulder at "Cicero's Orations."
"And do you wish to speak to them like Cicero, my boy?" she said gently. "But I do not think you will find that possible. Because when Cicero spoke it was in a different, age and to very different people--people who were glad to learn how to be wise and brave. But if you were Cicero himself, do you think you would be able to impress the English Parliament?"
"Why not, dear?" asked Errington with some fervor. "I believe that men, taken as men, pur et simple, are the same in all ages, and are open to the same impressions. Why should not modern Englishmen be capable of receiving the same lofty ideas as the antique Romans, and acting upon them?"
"Ah, do not ask me why," said Thelma, with a plaintive little shake of her head--"for I cannot tell you! But remember how many members of Parliament we did meet in London--and where were their lofty ideas? Philip, had they any ideas at all, do you think? There was that very fat gentleman who is a brewer,--well, to hear him talk, would you not think all England was for the making of beer? And he does not care for the country unless it continues to consume his beer! It was to that very man I said something about Hamlet, and he told me he had no interest for such nonsense as Shakespeare and play-going--his time was taken up at the ''Ouse.' You see, he is a member of Parliament--yet it is evident he neither knows the language nor the literature of his country! And there must be many like him, otherwise so ignorant a person would not hold such a position--and for such men, what would be the use of a Cicero?"
Philip leaned back against the trunk of the tree under which they were sitting, and laughed.
"You may be right, Thelma,--I dare say you are. There's certainly too much beer represented in the House--I admit that. But, after all, trade is the great moving-spring of national prosperity,--and it would hardly be fair to refuse seats to the very men who help to keep the country going."