“Question! question!” in a general cry, from One, Two, and Three.
“Question! question!” in meek reverberation, from Smith and Jones.
“That is the question,” rejoined Sir Patrick. “You admit the existence of the public feeling and I ask, what good does it do?”
“What harm does it do?” from One, Two, and Three.
“Hear! hear!” from Smith and Jones.
“That’s a fair challenge,” replied Sir Patrick. “I am bound to meet you on that new ground. I won’t point, gentlemen, by way of answer, to the coarseness which I can see growing on our national manners, or to the deterioration which appears to me to be spreading more and more widely in our national tastes. You may tell me with perfect truth that I am too old a man to be a fair judge of manners and tastes which have got beyond my standards. We wi
