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But the Chief Secretary did not see his way to make Babberly the hero of a state trial. He replied that the Government was fully alive to the duty of preserving order in Belfast, and refused to commit himself to any definite plan for dealing with Babberly. The newspapers made the most of the incident, and O'Donovan's record was scrutinized by both parties.
Moyne murmured a compliment about Conroy's extreme generosity in the past, and Babberly said that further calls on our purses were, for the present, unnecessary. Then we all forgot about Conroy. The Dean sat half way down the table on my side.
Bob Power, relying on what he knew of the character of one man, came to the same conclusion. "Who is the man you know?" said Conroy. "Not Babberly, is it?" "Oh Lord! no," said Bob. "Babberly is well, Babberly talks a lot." "That's so," said Conroy. "But if it isn't Babberly, who is it?" "McNeice," said Bob, "Gideon McNeice." "H'm. He's something in some university, isn't he?"
"I don't mean Babberly personally," I said, "I mean his party; Malcolmson, you know, and our Dean. If you'd only gone to hear the Dean preach this morning you'd know what he thinks about blood. I've often heard him say that the last drop of it mind that now, Sir Samuel the last drop ought to be shed. That's going as far as any one very well could, isn't it?"
Cahoon said that he was giving his mill hands a half holiday in order that the girls might go to listen to Lady Moyne. Babberly struck in with a characteristic speech. "The influence of women," he said, "can hardly be over-estimated. We must never forget that the most impressionable years of a man's life are those during which he is learning to say his prayers beside his mother's knee."
Next him sat Babberly. Cahoon, McNeice and Malcolmson sat together at the bottom of the table. I was given a chair on Moyne's other side. Conroy would not sit at the table at all. He had two chairs in a corner of the room. He sat on one of them and put his legs on the other. He also smoked a cigar, which I think everybody regarded as bad form.
On the very day on which the Chancellor of the Exchequer received Godfrey's letter, Babberly announced his intention of holding another Unionist demonstration in Belfast. He did not mean any harm by this. He intended nothing worse than another eloquent speech and expected nothing more serious than the usual cheers. He regards demonstrations very much as my nephew Godfrey does garden-parties.
"Malcolmson has agreed all right," said Babberly, "and if only that wretched little paper did you say Conroy was in it?" "I'll write to Mr. Conroy at once," said Lady Moyne. "I'm sure his connection with a paper of that kind is simply a mistake." She turned to the table and began to write her letter.
She besought Moyne to use all his influence to moderate the anti-Home Rule enthusiasm of Malcolmson and the Dean. Moyne smiled in a sickly way when we came to this advice. The other long telegram was from Babberly. I must say that Babberly at this crisis displayed immense energy and something like political genius.
We felt that McNeice attached more meaning to the words than Babberly did. A member of the Cabinet happened to be speaking two days later at a large public meeting in Croydon. He was supposed to be explaining the advantages of the new Insurance Act to the mistresses and servants of the smaller middle-class households.
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