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, Chamberlain, have never used it as—­Talleyrand, was it not?—­recommended that it should be used—­for concealment.

CHAMBERLAIN.  So you think that—­in words at any rate—­I’ve been honest?

DIST. V. I should say pre-eminently.

CHAMBERLAIN.  And—­loyal?

DIST. V. I have never had differences—­political divergences—­with any man more loyal than you, Chamberlain.

CHAMBERLAIN.  Thank you.  I value that—­from you.  So the question’s answered.  On my side there is no cloud, as you tell me I have nothing with which to reproach myself.

DIST. V. Thank you for the reassurance.  In that case the heavens are clear.

CHAMBERLAIN.  I hope they are properly grateful.  Such a testimonial—­from two men looking in opposite directions—­is an embracing one.

DIST. V. Opposite?  Oh, I had hoped—­though we may not see eye to eye in everything—­that still, in the main, we were in general agreement.

CHAMBERLAIN.  Possibly.  I daresay “a half-sheet of note-paper” might still cover our “general agreement,” so long as we only talked about it.  That served us for—­two years, did it not?  But I wasn’t meaning—­as to our political opinions.  I meant that you are still looking to the future; I can only look back.