stale for any such
mental relaxation.

CHAMBERLAIN. Are you? You don't look like it.

DIST. V. In politics one tries not to look like anything; but how at the
end of the session can one be otherwise?

CHAMBERLAIN. Is all going on there--as usual?

DIST. V. Yes...yes. I don't find being in opposition makes as much
difference as I expected, as regards work. One misses the permanent
official who always did it for one. Wonderful creatures--who first
invented them? Pitt, or was it Pepys? Oh, no, he was one of them. A
product, perhaps, of the seventeenth century.

CHAMBERLAIN. In Tudor times Prime Ministers were permanent, weren't they?

DIST. V. Their heads weren't. Executions took the place of elections in
those days. And there's something to be said for it.

CHAMBERLAIN. Yes. There was more dignity about it; it gave a testimonial
of character; the other doesn't.

DIST. V. Still, electoral defeat is very refreshing. Rejection by one's
own constituents is sometimes a blessing in disguise: it saves one from
undue familiarity.... That has never happened to you, has it?

CHAMBERLAIN. It depends what one means by--constituents. In the strict
sense--no.

(_And now there is a pause, for something has been said that is not
merely conversation. Very charmingly, and with a wonderful niceness of
tone, the Distinguished Visitor accepts the opening that has been given
him.)_

DIST. V. Chamberlain, I have been wanting to come and see you for a long
time.

CHAMBERLAIN. Thank you. So I--guessed.

DIST. V. I wrote to you--a letter which you did not answer. Perhaps it did
not seem to require an answer. But I hoped for one. So, after not hearing,
I made up my mind to come and see you.

CHAMBERLAIN. That was very kind of you.

DIST. V. No, it wasn't; it was natural. We've worked together--so long.
And I wanted to assure myself that there was, personally--that there is
now--no cloud between us; no ill-feeling about anything. If I thought that
remotely possible, I should regret it more than I can say. Speaking for
myself----

CHAMBERLAIN. If you had not thought it possible--should you have come?

DIST. V. I cannot conceive how that would have made any difference.

CHAMBERLAIN. Still, if you had not thought it possible, you would hardly
have asked the question.

DIST. V. Well, now I have asked it. Speech is an overrated means of
communication--especially between friends; but it has to serve sometimes.
And you, at least, C