What I said was that I feel no moral doubt he would have signed it if an attack of illness--" Lanley gave a short roar.
"That's just like _you_, Wilsey.

You wouldn't have signed it, either.

You would have said that while in cordial sympathy with the ideas set forth, you would not care to put your name to a document that might give pain to a monarch who, though not as liberal as some of us could wish, was yet--" "As a matter of fact," Wilsey began again even more coldly, "I should have signed--" "Oh, you think so now.

A hundred years from now you'd sign a petition for the eight-hour law." "Never!" said Wilsey, raising his hand.

"I should never put my name to a document--" He stopped at another roar from his friend, and never took the sentence up again, but indicated with a gesture that only legal minds were worth arguing with on points of this sort.
When he had gone, Lanley dipped the spoon in his oyster stew with not a little pleasure.