"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 Fanny.
"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, Fanny. 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 Fanny.
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 Fanny, 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."
"That," said Fanny, "is how it struck me. But it'll keep Horatio quiet
for the next six months."
"_Quiet_? And afterwards?"
"Oh, afterwards there'll be his book."
"I'd forgotten his book."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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