It's compromise"-- the old man dwelt lovingly, as usual, on the literary word--"it's compromise you must have in Parliament." "I'll see Parliament damned first!" cried Paul, his nerves on edge.
"You'll have to wait a long time, sonny," said Barney Bill, wagging a sage head.

"Parliament takes a lot of damning." "Anyhow," said Paul, not eager to continue the argument, but unconsciously caught in the drift of Barney Bill's philosophy, "my private life isn't politics, and there's not going to be another lie in my private life as long as I live." The old man broke a short silence with a dry chuckle.

"How it takes one back!" he said reflectively.

"Lor lumme! I can hear yer speaking now--just in the same tone--the night what yer run away with me.

Yer hadn't a seat to yer breeches then, and now you've a seat in Parliament." He chuckled again at his joke.