.

DIST. V. Surely you were not then intending to force me against my own
judgment?

CHAMBERLAIN. No; but I thought you, and the rest, would follow.

DIST. V. I think we did: I think we still do. But sometimes, with
followers, following takes time.

CHAMBERLAIN. It will take more than my time. That is where I
miscalculated.

DIST. V. But, my dear Chamberlain--if one may be personal--you are
maintaining your strength, are you not? The doctors--are hopeful?

CHAMBERLAIN. The regulation paragraphs are supplied to the papers, if
that's what you mean.

DIST. V. But I had this from members of your own family.

CHAMBERLAIN. Quite so; it is they who supply them.

DIST. V. Then, if the source is so authoritative, surely it must be true.

CHAMBERLAIN. Are newspaper paragraphs in such cases--ever true?

DIST. V. Perhaps I am no judge. As you know, I seldom read them.

CHAMBERLAIN. Aren't the probabilities that they will always overstate the
case--as far as possible?

DIST. V. That is a course which, as an old politician,--speaking
generally--I must own has its advantages. So often, when things are
uncertain, one has to act as if one were sure.

CHAMBERLAIN. Yes, you've done that--sometimes. Sometimes you haven't. I
shouldn't call you an old politician, though. Being old is the thing
you've always managed to avoid. And yet, you've been in at a good many
political deaths first and last.

DIST. V. That, in itself, is an ageing experience.

CHAMBERLAIN. Yes? ... I wonder.

DIST. V. Oh, but surely!

CHAMBERLAIN. _I_ wasn't sure; but I take your word for it.

DIST. V. In politics, somehow, the deaths seem always to exceed the
births: those who go have become more intimate: one has got to know them.
Yes, the departures do certainly overshadow the arrivals.

CHAMBERLAIN. Yet sometimes they must have come to you as a relief.

DIST. V. My dear Chamberlain, don't say that! It isn't true.

CHAMBERLAIN. Oh! I wasn't thinking of myself just then.

DIST. V. You were thinking, then, of somebody?

CHAMBERLAIN. Yes, I was. I was thinking of George Wyndham. What a
beautiful fellow he was! so clever, so handsome, so charming: a man cut
out for success, by the very look of him. And then, all at once, down and
out: the old pack had got him! How they hunted him! "Devolution!" Wouldn't
they be glad to get that now?

DIST. V. At the time it was impossible.

CHAMBERLAIN. Yes, you accepted that, I know. ... It broke his heart