Kingsnorth tried to speak; Angela raised her voice:

"Turn to your judges--the Lord Chief is an Irishman. Look at the
House of Commons. Our laws are passed or defeated by the Irish vote,
and yet so blindly ignorant and obstinate is our insular prejudice
that we refuse them the favours they do us--governing THEMSELVES as
well as England."

Kingsnorth looked at his daughter aghast. Treason in his own house!
His child speaking the two most hated of all words at his own dinner
table and in laudatory terms. He could scarcely believe it. He
looked at her a moment and then thundered:

"How dare you! How dare you!"

Angela smiled a little amusedly-tolerant smile as she looked frankly
at her father and answered:

"This is exactly the old-fashioned tone we English take to anything
we don't understand. And that is why other countries are leaving us
in the race. There is a nation living within a few hours' journey
from our doors, yet millions of English people are as ignorant of
them as if they lived in Senegambia." She paused, looked once more
straight into her father's eyes and said: "And you, father, seem to
be as ignorant as the worst of them!"

"Angela!" cried her sister in horror.

Nathaniel laughed good-naturedly, leaned across to Angela and said: