W. Pett Ridge

“ The success of the labour movement as a whole depended on the loyalty of the men to those who were doing brain work on their behalf; let that loyalty once exhibit anything of doubt and the whole scheme, the whole business, the whole movement—the Labour member struck the wooden table emphatically at each variant of the phrase—the whole show would go to pot. ”

“ Summarised, the argument was that the society had made a grievous blunder; that when a chap made a mistake he should apologise for it and set it right; that a society was like a chap, and should behave as a chap would, and that in the present deplorable state of the society there was only one thing they could do, namely, to ask Erb Barnes to let bygones be bygones, and to come back and resume the secretaryship. Payne spoke briefly. Every society had its ups and downs: this Society was just now all in the downs, as the song had it. ”

“ I reckon I've been in love with this society for the last year, and I've been loyal to it; now I'm in love with somebody else.”
“Who?” demanded the room.
“I'm in love,” said Erb, turning to glance at himself contentedly in the clouded mirror, “in love with my wife.”
“In love with his wife!” said the members to each other amazedly.
“Some people possess a stock of enthusiasm that's got no limits; mine all vanished, I find, directly you treated me unfairly. My friend who's kindly come down from Westminster to talk to you knows that I'm giving up prospects that would tempt a good many ”