hamberlain, have never used it as--Talleyrand, was it
not?--recommended that it should be used--for concealment.

CHAMBERLAIN. So you think that--in words at any rate--I've been honest?

DIST. V. I should say pre-eminently.

CHAMBERLAIN. And--loyal?

DIST. V. I have never had differences--political divergences--with any man
more loyal than you, Chamberlain.

CHAMBERLAIN. Thank you. I value that--from you. So the question's
answered. On my side there is no cloud, as you tell me I have nothing with
which to reproach myself.

DIST. V. Thank you for the reassurance. In that case the heavens are
clear.

CHAMBERLAIN. I hope they are properly grateful. Such a testimonial--from
two men looking in opposite directions--is an embracing one.

DIST. V. Opposite? Oh, I had hoped--though we may not see eye to eye in
everything--that still, in the main, we were in general agreement.

CHAMBERLAIN. Possibly. I daresay "a half-sheet of note-paper" might still
cover our "general agreement," so long as we only talked about it. That
served us for--two years, did it not? But I wasn't meaning--as to our
political opinions. I meant that you are still looking to the future; I
can only look back.

DIST. V. That, for you, must be a retrospect of deep satisfaction. It has
made much history.

CHAMBERLAIN. Catastrophes make history--sometimes.

DIST. V. You helped to avert them.

CHAMBERLAIN. Yes, for a time. But another may be coming, and I shan't be
here then. And if I were, I should be no use.

DIST. V. Oh, don't say that! Nor can I agree, either. No use? Your good
word is a power we still depend on. No, Chamberlain, we cannot do without
you.

CHAMBERLAIN. You did--when you accepted my resignation.

DIST. V. For a fixed and an agreed purpose. In a way that only bound us
more closely.

CHAMBERLAIN. I thought so then. But it has turned out differently.

DIST. V. Has it? I should not have said so. Am I not to count on you
still?

CHAMBERLAIN. As a diminishing force? Yes; I shan't disappoint you.

DIST. V. Oh! (_Deprecatingly, as of something that need not have been
said_.) But not that at all!

CHAMBERLAIN (_rubbing it in_). Necessarily: one who, as I said, can
only look backward. Forward, I am nothing. Believe me, I have measured
myself at last. This is no miscalculation--like the other.

DIST. V. The other?

CHAMBERLAIN. My resignation.

DIST. V. Was that one?

CHAMBERLAIN. It certainly had not the effect I intended