painful
repentance. He was condemning himself for a word or two that had been
ill-spoken by himself, and which, since the moment of its utterance,
he had never ceased to remember with shame. He told himself now,
after his own secret fashion, that he must do penance for these words
by the humiliation of a direct contradiction of them. He must declare
that Caesar would at some future time be prepared to serve under
Pompey. Then he made his answer. "Mr. Monk," he said, "I should be
false if I were to deny that it pleases me to hear you say so. I have
thought much of all that for the last two or three months. You may
probably have seen that I am not a man endowed with that fortitude
which enables many to bear vexations with an easy spirit. I am given
to fretting, and I am inclined to think that a popular minister in
a free country should be so constituted as to be free from that
infirmity. I shall certainly never desire to be at the head of a
Government again. For a few years I would prefer to remain out of
office. But I will endeavour to look forward to a time when I may
again perhaps be of some humble use."

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