The doctor thought that he had sufficiently prepared Soane for a change in his patron’s appearance.  Nevertheless, the younger man was greatly shocked when through the door, obsequiously opened—­and held open while a man might count fifty, so that eye and mind grew expectant—­the great statesman, the People’s Minister at length appeared.  For the stooping figure that moved to a chair only by virtue of a servant’s arm, and seemed the taller for its feebleness, for dragging legs and shrunken, frame and features sharpened by illness and darkened by the great peruke it was the Earl’s fashion to wear, he was in a degree prepared.  But for the languid expression of the face that had been so eloquent, for the lacklustre eyes and the dulness of mind that noticed little and heeded less, he was not prepared; and these were so marked and so unlike the great minister—­

     ’A daring pilot in extremity
     Pleased with the danger when the waves went high’

—­so unlike the man whose eagle gaze had fluttered Courts and imposed the law on Senates, that it was only the presence of Lady Chatham, who followed her lord, a book and cushion in her hands, that repressed the exclamation which rose to Sir George’s lips.  So complete was the change indeed that, as far as the Earl was concerned, he might have uttered it!  His lordship, led to the head of the table, sank without a word into the chair placed for him, and propping his elbow on the table and his head on his hand, groaned aloud.

Lady Chatham compressed her lips with evident annoyance as she took her stand behind her husband’s chair; it was plain from the glance she cast at Soane that she resented the presence of a witness.  Even Dr. Addington, with his professional sang-froid and his knowledge of the invalid’s actual state, was put out of countenance for a moment.  Then he signed to Sir George to be silent, and to the servant to withdraw.

At last Lord Chatham spoke.  ‘This business?’ he said in a hollow voice and without uncovering his eyes, ‘is it to be settled now?’

‘If your lordship pleases,’ the doctor answered in a subdued tone.

‘Sir George Soane is there?’

‘Yes.’

‘Sir George,’ the Earl said with an evident effort, ’I am sorry I cannot receive you better.’

‘My lord, as it is I am deeply indebted to your kindness.’

‘Dagge finds no flaw in their case,’ Lord Chatham continued apathetically.  ’Her ladyship has read his report to me.  If Sir George likes to contest the claim, it is his right.’

‘I do not propose to do so.’

Sir George had not this time subdued his voice to the doctor’s pitch; and the Earl, whose nerves seemed alive to the slightest sound, winced visibly.  ‘That is your affair,’ he answered querulously.  ’At any rate the trustees do not propose to do so.’

Sir George, speaking with more caution, replied that he acquiesced; and then for a few seconds there was silence in the room, his lordship continuing to sit in the same attitude of profound melancholy, and the others to look at him with compassion, which they vainly strove to dissemble.  At last, in a voice little above a whisper, the Earl asked if the man was there.