I have received a
note of apology from the Secretary."
He paused just long enough to let those who were taking sides against
him emphasize their satisfaction at this acknowledgment by half-
suppressed exclamations; then, in a voice of cutting smoothness, he
continued,--
"At the head of that note was the word 'confidential,' which forbade
me, as a gentleman, to show it. This was evidently the committee's idea
of reparation for the outrage of that printed circular."
He paused again, and the impression that he was making was evident from
the fact that nobody attempted to deprive him of the floor; then he
went on again,--
"I have already said that my motion was not a personal matter; if my
case serves as an illustration, so much the better, as long as the
principle is enforced."
"The motion," interposed the President, gathering his wits together,
"has not been seconded, and is therefore not debatable."
"I second it," roared Tom Bently in his big voice, adding _sotto voce_:
"We won't let the fun be spoiled for a little thing like that."
The half laugh that followed this sally seemed to recall men from the
state of astonishment into which they had been thrown by the audacity
of Fenton's attack. There were plenty of men to speak now;--men who
thought Fenton's position absurd;--men who believed in upholding the
dignity of the Executive Committee;--men, more revolutionary, who were
always pleased to see the existing order of things attacked;--men who
wanted explanations, and men who offered them;--men who rose to points
of order, and men who proposed amendments; with the inevitable men who
are always in a state of oratorical effervescence and who speak upon
every occasion, quite without reference to having anything to say.
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