He had deliberately torn to pieces his house of refuge. Success or
failure, what did it matter now? Yet with the dogged courage of one
loathing failure for failure's own sake, he flung himself into the
struggle.
On the fifth day after Jane's departure, the thunderbolt fell.
Tallente's article was printed in full and the weaker members of the
Democratic Party shouted at once for his resignation. At a question
cunningly framed by Dartrey, Tallente rose in the House to defend his
position, and acting on the soundest axiom of military tactics, that the
best defence is attack, he turned upon Miller, and with caustic
deliberation exposed the plot framed for his undoing. He threw caution
to the winds, and though repeatedly and gravely called to order, he
poured out his scorn upon his enemy till the latter, white as a sheet,
rose to demand the protection of the Speaker. There were very few in
the House that day who ever forgot the almost terrifying spectacle of
Miller's collapse under his adversary's hurricane assault, or the proud
and dignified manner in which Tallente concluded his own defence.
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