But by nature polite he
waited till the orator was sitting down before he rose, and, with the
three leaders firmly grasped in his hand, walked deliberately up to the
seated speakers. Turning his back on them, he said, in a voice to which
nervousness and emotion lent shrillness:
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is now your turn, in accordance with the
tradition of your society, to listen to me. Let us not mince matters
with mealy mouths. There are in our midst certain viperous persons,
like that notorious gentleman who had the sulphurous impudence to have
a French father--French! gentlemen; not German, ladies-mark the cunning
and audacity of the fellow; like that renegade Labour leader, who has
never led anything, yet, if he had his will, would lead us all into the
pit of destruction; like those other high-brow emasculates who mistake
their pettifogging pedantry for pearls of price, and plaster the plain
issue before us with perfidious and Pacifistic platitudes. We say at
once, and let them note it, we will have none of them; we will have----"
Here his words were drowned by an interruption greater even than that;
which was fast gathering among the row of speakers behind him, and the
surprised audience in front; and he could see the large man being forced
from the door and up the aisle by a posse of noisy youths, till he
stood with arms pinioned, struggling to turn round, just in front of Mr.
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