"You don't want me to add to it myself, Mr. Fitzgerald?" said Mr. Clutterbuck with an anxious look. "N--no," said Fitzgerald, running his finger down the page.... "My point is ... there's something you got to add." He read it again more closely, knitting his brows. It was a straightforward bit of democratic pleading and clear, popular statement. It emphasised the importance to Great Britain of raising the price of Consols up to a standard level of seventy-five, of maintaining and if possible increasing the gold reserve so that the Bank rate should not rise above six per cent. for more than three months at one time; it declared strongly for the principle of female courts of justice, and supported the policy of the Government in its recent subsidies to the Grimsby fishing industry, the White Star Line, the Small Holders Capitalisation Association, the new "Eastern Counties Railway," and Lord Painton's Association for the Construction and Repair of English Canals. Upon lesser matters it turned to criticise the woeful parsimony of the late administration, and contrasted the provision made for the fleet in the last National Budget with the Naval Estimates of 1908. The document ended with a paragraph upon the Offences Disfranchisement Bill, which Charlie Fitzgerald read with close attention. It was as follows: "_In my opinion those who have borne themselves so ill as to merit condemnation by one of our English justices of the peace, whether to fine or imprisonment, or both, are certainly worthy of some measure of loss of the powers of the fulness of complete and unrestricted citizenship; but I shall reserve my judgment upon the present Government's decision to withdraw the franchise for five years, or in some cases in perpetuity, from those who have done no more than to excite such grave suspicion as must attach to those who have been arrested by the police or have been present as defendants in a county court._" Fitzgerald read this sentence three times over, and sighed. "Too many 'ofs'," he murmured, "too many words!... Did you _notice_ that last paragraph?" he added without looking up at his employer. "I really can't say, Mr. Fitzgerald," answered that gentleman moving about somewhat uneasily. "I can't tell you, quoted offhand like that. What's it about?" "Well, it _seems_ to be about the Offences Disfranchisement Bill, but God only knows who drafted it." "Who--what?" said Mr. Clutterbuck still more uneasily, coming and looking over his shoulder. "Who wrote it out," said Fitzgerald, "who designed the beastly thing?" "Really, Mr. Fitzgerald, really," said Mr. Clutterbuck. He had not himself written the fatal words, but he had carried on a little correspondence of his own about them, and he did not like the work to be treated so sharply, though his respect for Charlie Fitzgerald was still strong. "It's got to go," said Fitzgerald decisively.