Part 10 (1/2)

”Why isn't it?”

”Because it isn't Horatio's prospectus.”

Barbara looked down and away from the dangerous light in f.a.n.n.y's eyes.

”But it expresses his views, doesn't it?”

”That's no good when he wants to express them himself.”

And so far from being any good, the original prospectus was a positive hindrance to Mr. Waddington. It took all the wind out of his sails; it took, as he justly complained, the very words out of his mouth and the ideas out of his head; it got in his way and upset him at every turn.

Somehow or other he had got to stamp his personality upon this thing.

”It's no good,” he said; ”if they can't recognize it as a personal appeal from ME.” And here it was, stamped all over, and indelibly, with the personalities of Sir Maurice Gedge and his London Committee. And he couldn't depart radically from the lines they had laid down; there were just so many things to be said, and Sir Maurice and his Committee had contrived to say them all.

But, though the matter was given him, Mr. Waddington, before he actually tackled his prospectus, had conceived himself as supplying his own fresh and inimitable manner; the happy touch, the sudden, arresting turn. But somehow it wasn't working out that way. Try as he would, he couldn't get away from the turns and touches supplied by Sir Maurice Gedge.

”It would have been easy enough,” he said, ”to draw up the original prospectus. I'd a thousand times rather do that than write one on the top of it.”

f.a.n.n.y agreed. ”It's got to _look_ different,” she said, ”without _being_ different.”

”Couldn't we,” said Barbara, ”turn it upside down?”

”Upside down?” He stared at her with great owl's eyes, offended, suspecting her this time of an outrageous levity.

”Yes. Really upside down. You see, the heads go in this order--Defence of Private Property; Defence of Capital; Defence of Liberty; Defence of Government; Defence of the Empire; Danger of Revolution, Communism and Bolshevism; Every Man's Duty. Why not reverse them? Every Man's Duty; Danger of Bolshevism, Communism and Revolution; Defence of the Empire; Defence of Government; Defence of Liberty; Defence of Capital; Defence of Private Property.”

”That's an idea,” said f.a.n.n.y.

”Not at all a bad idea,” said Mr. Waddington. ”You might take down the heads in that order.”

Barbara took them down, and it was agreed that they presented a very original appearance thus reversed; and, as Barbara pointed out, the one order was every bit as logical as the other; and though Mr. Waddington objected that he would have preferred to close on the note of Government and Empire, he was open to the suggestion that, while this might appeal more to the county, with the farmers and townspeople, capital and private property would strike further home. And by the time he had changed ”combat the forces of disorder” to ”take a stand against anarchy and disruption,” and ”spirit of freedom in this country” to ”British genius for liberty,” and ”darkest hour in England's history” to ”blackest period in the history of England,” he was persuaded that the prospectus was now entirely and absolutely his own.

”But I think we must sound the note of hope to end up with. My own message. How about 'We must remember that the darkest hour comes before dawn'?”

”My dear Horatio, if you inflate yourself so over your prospectus, you'll have no wind left when you come to speak. Be as wildly original as you please, but _don't_ be wasteful and extravagant.”

”All right, f.a.n.n.y. I will reserve the dawn. Please make a note of that, Miss Madden. Speech. 'Blackest'--or did I say 'darkest'?--'hour before dawn.'”

”You'd better reserve all you can,” said f.a.n.n.y.

When Barbara had typed the prospectus, Mr. Waddington insisted on taking it to Pyecraft himself. He wanted to insure its being printed without delay, and to arrange for the posters and handbills; he also wanted to see the impression it would make on Pyecraft and on the young lady in Pyecraft's shop. He liked to think of the stir in the composing room when it was handed in, and of the importance he was conferring on Pyecraft.

”You haven't said what you think of the prospectus,” said f.a.n.n.y, as they watched him go.

”I haven't said what I think of the League of Liberty.”

”What _do_ you think of it?”

”I think it looks as if somebody was in an awful funk; and I don't see that there's going to be much liberty about it.”