ways admired your courage when the
odds were against you...So, when the time for it came, you pulled me down
too. It had to be done. ...And here I am.

DIST. V. My dear Chamberlain, you distress me deeply!

CHAMBERLAIN. Of course I do. D'you think I haven't distressed myself too?
Do I look like a man who hasn't been through anything?

DIST. V. Then--there is a cloud between us, after all.

CHAMBERLAIN. No. I see you clearly; I see myself clearly. There's no cloud
about it; it's all sharp, and clear, and hard--hard as nails. And
I've been able to put it into words--that now you understand. Poor
Randolph! Do you remember how his tongue stumbled, and tripped him, the
last time he spoke in the House? And I saw you looking on, pitying him.
You'd got a kind side to you, for all your efficiency. Men like you for
that--that charm...It's been a great asset to you. Parnell, how he tried
all his life to make a speech and couldn't. But what he said didn't
matter--there was the man! What a force he might have been--was! What a
Samson, when he pulled the whole Irish Party down--got them all on top of
him to pull with him. What d'you think he was doing then? Trying to give
his Irish nation a soul! It looked like pride, pique, mere wanton
destruction; but it was a great idea. And if ever they rise to it--if ever
the whole Irish nation puts its back to the wall as Parnell wanted it to
do then--shakes off dependence, alliance, conciliation, compromise, it may
beat us yet! They were afraid of defeat. That's why we won. A cause or a
nation that fears no defeat--nor any number of them--that's what wins in
the long run. But does any such nation--any such cause exist? I'm not
sure...I'm not really sure of anything now, only this: that it's better
not to live too long after one has failed. To go on living then--is the
worst failure of all.

(_As be thus talks himself out, his auditor's solicitous concern has
continually increased; and now when, for the first time, the voice breaks
with exhaustion and emotion, the other, half-rising from his seat,
interposes with gentle but insistent urgency.)_

DIST. V. My dear Chamberlain, you are overtaxing your strength; you are
doing yourself harm. You ought not to go on. Stop, I do beg of you!

CHAMBERLAIN. Stop? Why stop? What does it matter now?

(_But even as he speaks, mind and will cease to contest the point where
physical energy fails. His manner changes, his voice becomes dull and
listless