FRANKLYN.  Still, you admit that under our parliamentary system Lubin could not have helped himself?

BURGE.  On that subject my lips are closed.  Nothing will induce me to say one word against the old man.  I never have; and I never will.  Lubin is old:  he has never been a real statesman:  he is as lazy as a cat on a hearthrug:  you cant get him to attend to anything:  he is good for nothing but getting up and making speeches with a peroration that goes down with the back benches.  But I say nothing against him.  I gather that you do not think much of me as a statesman; but at all events I can get things done.  I can hustle:  even you will admit that.  But Lubin!  Oh my stars, Lubin!!  If you only knew—­

The parlor maid opens the door and announces a visitor.

THE PARLOR MAID.  Mr Lubin.

SURGE [bounding from his chair] Lubin!  Is this a conspiracy?

They all rise in amazement, staring at the door.  Lubin enters:  a man at the end of his sixties, a Yorkshireman with the last traces of Scandinavian flax still in his white hair, undistinguished in stature, unassuming in his manner, and taking his simple dignity for granted, but wonderfully comfortable and quite self-assured in contrast to the intellectual restlessness of Franklyn and the mesmeric self-assertiveness of Burge.  His presence suddenly brings out the fact that they are unhappy men, ill at ease, square pegs in round holes, whilst he flourishes like a primrose.

The parlor maid withdraws._

LUBIN [coming to Franklyn] How do you do, Mr Barnabas? [He speaks very comfortably and kindly, much as if he were the host, and Franklyn an embarrassed but welcome guest].  I had the pleasure of meeting you once at the Mansion House.  I think it was to celebrate the conclusion of the hundred years peace with America.

FRANKLYN [shaking hands] It was long before that:  a meeting about
Venezuela, when we were on the point of going to war with America.

LUBIN [not at all put out] Yes:  you are quite right.  I knew it was something about America. [He pats Franklyn’s hand].  And how have you been all this time?  Well, eh?

FRANKLYN [smiling to soften the sarcasm] A few vicissitudes of health naturally in so long a time.

LUBIN.  Just so.  Just so. [Looking round at Savvy] The young lady is—?

FRANKLYN.  My daughter, Savvy.

Savvy comes from the window between her father and Lubin.

LUBIN [taking her hand affectionately in both his] And why has she never come to see us?

BURGE.  I don’t know whether you have noticed, Lubin, that I am present.

Savvy takes advantage of this diversion to slip away to the settee, where she is stealthily joined by Haslam, who sits down on her left.