COURTNEY said, since he was asked, he
must say he thought not. So FOSTER changed the prescription. CHAPLIN
much gratified at this speedy close of rupture that threatened
progress with Bill. Presided over discussion with urbanity that was
irresistible.
"Reminds me," said WILFRID LAWSON, looking across at Right Hon.
Gentleman seated on Treasury Bench, with deeply-bayed shirt-front,
and head closely bent over copy of Bill, "of a motherly hen gathering
its brood under its wings, and trying to make things comfortable all
round. Sometimes, when one of the brood grows a trifle importunate,
the motherly expression on the expansive face sharpens, and the
chicken is pecked at. But, on the whole, little to disturb the
serenity of the coop."
Never before thought of CHAPLIN as an old hen. But, really, with the
place permeated with agricultural and farm-yard associations, LAWSON's
idea not so far out of it as it might appear to the domestic circle at
Blankney Hall.
At half-past eleven those Scotchmen came up again. Upset the henroost,
devoured what was left of the cow, dug up the verdurous three acres,
and till two o'clock in the morning harried the Commissioners under
the Scotch University Act.
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