"I have never even tried to get there."
"Perhaps you dislike the idea of that kind of life."
"No, indeed," he said. "So far from it, that I regard it as the highest kind of life there is in England. A seat in Parliament gives a man a status in this country which it has never done elsewhere."
"Then why don't you try it?"
"Because I've got into another groove. I've become essentially a city man,—one of those who take up the trade of making money generally."
"And does that content you?"
"No, Duchess;—certainly not. Instead of contenting me it disgusts me. Not but that I like the money,—only it is so insufficient a use of one's life. I suppose I shall try to get into Parliament some day. Seats in Parliament don't grow like blackberries on bushes."
"Pretty nearly," said the Duchess.
"Not in my part of the country. These good things seem to be appointed to fall in the way of some men, and not of others. If there were a general election going on to-morrow, I should not know how to look for a seat."
"They are to be found sometimes even without a general election," said the Duchess.