JESSE COLLINGS (a little crestfallen).  I thought you really liked him.

CHAMBERLAIN.  So I do.  Because he has beaten me, is that any reason for hating him?  If it were—­after a lifetime of polls and politics, one would have to be at hate with half the world.  No, from his point of view he had to beat me, and he has done it.  What I stick at is that he has proved the better business man!  As I used head and hand—­and heart (and heart, Collings!)—­

JESSE COLLINGS.  Yes, yes, I know you did.

CHAMBERLAIN.  Some people thought I hadn’t a heart:  “hard as nails” they called me....  Well, as I used those, so he used his defeats, his doubts, his indecision, his charm—­and left his heart out.  That was the real business-stroke.  That did for me....  I liked him:  he knew it.  Whether he ever liked me, to this day, I don’t know—­for certain.  If he did, it made no difference.  That’s what I call business.

JESSE COLLINGS (warmly).  But you’ve always been honourable.

CHAMBERLAIN.  So has he.  Don’t be sentimental, Collings!  But some men manage in public life to give you a certain view of their character:  so that you count on it.  And then, on occasion, they play another—­and get wonderful results.  If I’d had that gift, I should have used it and done better.  He has used it, and he has done better.  I don’t whine about it.  But I’d rather, Collings (I suppose I’m prejudiced), I’d rather he hadn’t asked himself here—­just now:  not just now.

(There is a pause, and Collings feels that he must say something; but finding nothing of any value to say, he merely commentates with a query.)

JESSE COLLINGS.  What has “just now” to do with it?

CHAMBERLAIN.  “Just now,” dear Collings, only means the next few months or so—­possibly a year.  That’s all.  I had rather he’d waited, and then just sent a wreath with the right sort of inscription on it.  He could have done that charmingly too.  And I haven’t got wreaths here for him, for I don’t think that even a posy of these would really interest him.

(And with a weary gesture he points to the orchids, as though they were things of which, not impossibly, “posies” might be made.)

JESSE COLLINGS (a little perplexed by this introduction of wreaths and flowers into political affairs).  What does really interest him?  He’s so interesting himself.

CHAMBERLAIN.  You’ve hit it, Collings.  It’s himself.  Not selfishly.  He stands for so many things that he values—­that he thinks good for the world—­necessary for the stability of the social order.  He is their embodiment:  he is the most emblematic figure in the modern world that I know—­in this country, at any rate—­representing so much that is good in the great traditions which have got to go.  And to stave off that day he will do almost anything.  He would even—­if he thought it would enable him the better to prick some of his bubbles—­he would even take office under Lloyd George.