"That would be rather inconvenient," said Nell. "Imagine walking out on a wet day in a habit or a ball frock!"
"I know," he said. "But I don't think you ought to walk out on a wet day."
"You ought to live in Turkey," said Nell, with a laugh.
"That is rather neat," he said approvingly; "but pray, don't repeat my speech to Lady Wolfer; she would think me exceedingly frivolous, and I spend my time in the endeavor to convince her of my gravity and discretion."
"Are all politicians supposed to be grave?" asked Nell, glancing at the prime minister, who had just related an anecdote in his own inimitable manner, and was laughing as heartily as if he had not a care in the world.
Sir Charles followed her eyes and smiled.
"Judging by Mr. Gresham, one would answer with an emphatic negative," he said. "But he is an exception to the rule. He is only grave when he is in the House—and not always then. I have known him crack a joke—and laugh at it—at the very moment the fate of his ministry swung in the balance. Some men are born boys, and remain so all their lives, and some——" He stopped and involuntarily looked at his host, who sat at the end of the table, his tall, thin figure bolt upright, his face with a kind of courteous gravity. He had heard the anecdote and paid it the tribute of a smile, but the smile had passed quickly, and his countenance had resumed its wonted seriousness in a moment.
"I always regard Lord Wolfer as a model of what a statesman should seem," said Sir Charles. "I mean that he, more than any man I know, comes up to the popular idea of a great statesman—that is, in manner and bearing."
Nell remained silent. It was not befitting that she should discuss her host and employer; and she wondered whether the clever undersecretary beside her knew who she was and the position she held in the house. She did not know enough of the world to be aware that nowadays one discusses one's friends—even at their own tables—with a freedom which would have shocked an earlier generation.
"I often think," he continued, "that Lord Wolfer would have served the moralists as an instance of the vanity of human wishes."