"
Diana's cheeks flamed. Did Mr. Barton mean to regret that no more
English lives had been lost?
Mr. Barton was of opinion that if the defeat had been a bit worse,
bloodshed might have been saved in the end. A Jingo Viceroy and a Jingo
press could only be stopped by disaster--
On the contrary, said Diana, we could not afford to be stopped by
disaster. Disaster must be retrieved.
Mr. Barton asked her--why? Were we never to admit that we were in the
wrong?
The Viceroy and his advisers, she declared, were not likely to be wrong.
And prestige had to be maintained.
At the word "prestige" the rugged face of the Labor member grew
contemptuous and a little angry. He dealt with it as he was accustomed
to deal with it in Socialist meetings or in Parliament. His touch in
doing so was neither light nor conciliatory; the young lady, he thought,
required plain speaking.
But so far from intimidating the young lady, he found in the course of a
few more thrusts and parries that he had roused a by no means despicable
antagonist. Diana was a mere mouth-piece; but she was the mouth-piece of
eye-witnesses; whereas Barton was the mouth-piece of his daily newspaper
and a handful of partisan books written to please the political section
to which he belonged.
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