establish it. They bring with them the isolation
which is the product of cities. They have no idea of any tie except
that of wages; the notion of neighbourliness they do not understand.
And that reminds me of a curious thing. People go to town for society;
but I have always found that there is no real society except in the
country. We may be stupid there, but we belong to a scheme of things
which embodies the wisdom of generations. We meet not in
drawing-rooms, but in the hunting-field, on the county-bench, at
dinners of tenants or farmers' associations. Our private business is
intermixed with our public. Our occupation does not involve
competition; and the daily performance of its duties we feel to be
itself a kind of national service. That is an order of things which I
understand and admire, as my fathers understood and admired it before
me. And that is why I am a Tory; not because of any opinions I hold,
but because that is my character. I stood for Toryism while it meant
something; and now that it means nothing, though I stand for it no
longer, still I can't help being it. The England that is will last my
time; the England that is to be does not interest me; and it is as well
that I should have nothing to do with directing it.

"I don't know whether that is a sufficient account of the question I
was told to answer; but it's the best I can make, and I think it ought
to be sufficient. I always imagine myself saying to God, if He asks me
to give an account of myself: 'Here I am, as you made me. You can take
me or leave me. If I had to live again I would live just so. And if
you want me to live differently, you must make me different.' I have
championed a losing cause, and I am sorry it has lost. But I do not
break my heart about it. I can still live for the rest of my days the
life I respect and enjoy. And I am content to leave the nation in the
hands of Remenham, who, as I see, is all impatience to reply to my
heresies."

REMENHAM in fact was fidgeting in his chair as though he found it hard
to keep his seat; and I should have felt bound in pity to call upon him
next, even if I had not already determined to do so. He rose with
alacrity; and it was impossible not to be struck by the contrast he
presented to Cantilupe. His elastic upright figure, his firm chin, the
exuberance of his gestures, the clear ring of his voice, expressed
admirably the intellectual and nervous force which he possessed in