LUBIN [seating himself in Burge’s chair with ineffable comfortableness] My dear Burge:  if you imagine that it is possible to be within ten miles of your energetic presence without being acutely aware of it, you do yourself the greatest injustice.  How are you?  And how are your good newspaper friends? [Burge makes an explosive movement; but Lubin goes on calmly and sweetly] And what are you doing here with my old friend Barnabas, if I may ask?

BURGE [sitting down in Conrad’s chair, leaving him standing uneasily in the corner] Well, just what you are doing, if you want to know.  I am trying to enlist Mr Barnabas’s valuable support for my party.

LUBIN.  Your party, eh?  The newspaper party?

BURGE.  The Liberal Party.  The party of which I have the honor to be leader.

LUBIN.  Have you now?  Thats very interesting; for I thought I was the leader of the Liberal Party.  However, it is very kind of you to take it off my hands, if the party will let you.

BURGE.  Do you suggest that I have not the support and confidence of the party?

LUBIN.  I dont suggest anything, my dear Burge.  Mr Barnabas will tell you that we all think very highly of you.  The country owes you a great deal.  During the war, you did very creditably over the munitions; and if you were not quite so successful with the peace, nobody doubted that you meant well.

BURGE.  Very kind of you, Lubin.  Let me remark that you cannot lead a progressive party without getting a move on.

LUBIN.  You mean you cannot.  I did it for ten years without the least difficulty.  And very comfortable, prosperous, pleasant years they were.

BURGE.  Yes; but what did they end in?

LUBIN.  In you, Burge.  You don’t complain of that, do you?

BURGE [fiercely] In plague, pestilence, and famine; battle, murder, and sudden death.

LUBIN [with an appreciative chuckle] The Nonconformist can quote the prayer-book for his own purposes, I see.  How you enjoyed yourself over that business, Burge!  Do you remember the Knock-Out Blow?

BURGE.  It came off:  don’t forget that.  Do you remember fighting to the last drop of your blood?

LUBIN [unruffled, to Franklyn] By the way, I remember your brother Conrad—­a wonderful brain and a dear good fellow—­explaining to me that I couldn’t fight to the last drop of my blood, because I should be dead long before I came to it.  Most interesting, and quite true.  He was introduced to me at a meeting where the suffragettes kept disturbing me.  They had to be carried out kicking and making a horrid disturbance.

CONRAD.  No:  it was later, at a meeting to support the Franchise Bill which gave them the vote.

LUBIN [discovering Conrad’s presence for the first time] Youre right:  it was.  I knew it had something to do with women.  My memory never deceives me.  Thank you.  Will you introduce me to this gentleman, Barnabas?