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If we retire it deals a blow at our prestige." Lady Elphinspoon shuddered. Her long political training had taught her that nothing was so fatal to England as to be hit in the prestige. "And on the other hand," continued Sir John, "if we move sideways, the Ohulîs, the mortal enemies of the Wazoos, will strike us in our rear." "In our rear!" exclaimed Lady Elphinspoon in a tone of pain.
This Side Up With Care." "Miss Elphinspoon," he said, and there was a new note in his voice, "Angela, I leave England to-night " "To-night!" gasped Angela. "On a confidential mission." "To Wazuchistan!" exclaimed the girl. Powers paused a moment. "To Wazuchistan," he said, "yes. But it must not be known. I shall return in a month or never.
He could only say this, that wherever it was, and he used the word wherever with all the emphasis of which he was capable, the Government would accept the full responsibility for its being where it was. The House adjourned in something like confusion. Among those seated behind the grating of the Ladies' Gallery was Lady Elphinspoon. Her quick instinct told her the truth.
Angela Elphinspoon stood with Perriton Powers among the begonias of the conservatory. The same news which had so agitated Sir John lay heavy on both their hearts. "Will the Wazoo rise?" asked Angela, clasping her hands before her, while her great eyes sought the young man's face and found it. "Oh, Mr. Powers! Tell me, will they rise? It seems too dreadful to contemplate.
Do you think the Wazoo will rise?" "It is only too likely," said Powers. They stood looking into one another's eyes, their thoughts all on the Wazoo. Angelina Elphinspoon, as she stood there against the background of the begonias, made a picture that a painter, or even a plumber, would have loved.
"But, surely," pleaded Lady Elphinspoon, "you could find out. Had you no maps?" Sir John shook his head. "We thought of that at once, my dear. We've looked all through the British Museum. Once we thought we had succeeded. But it turned out to be Wisconsin." "But the map in the Times? Everybody saw it." Again the baronet shook his head. "Lord Southcliff had it made in the office," he said.
The baronet paused and shook his head in deep gloom. "John," said his wife, "I feel that there is something more. Did anything happen at the House?" Sir John nodded. "A bad business," he said. "The Wazuchistan Boundary Bill was read this afternoon for the third time." No woman in England, so it was generally said, had a keener political insight than Lady Elphinspoon.
"Yes?" queried Lady Elphinspoon. "He asked the Colonial Secretary" Sir John shuddered "to tell him where Wazuchistan is. Worse than that, my dear," added Sir John, "he defied him to tell him where it is." "What did you do? Surely he has no right to information of that sort?" "It was a close shave. Luckily the Whips saved us.
At the Prime Minister's right, Sir John Elphinspoon, no longer agitated, but sustained and dignified by the responsibility of his office, was playing spillikins. The little clock on the mantel chimed eight. The Premier closed his book of butterflies. "Well, gentlemen," he said, "I fear our meeting will not be a protracted one. It seems we are hopelessly at variance.
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