It was an anxious moment, but many moments are necessarily anxious in the life of a man who holds in his hands the destinies of Great Britain, and the young and popular Prime Minister had the stuff in him to stand worse scenes than that, but he was exhausted and he was slightly troubled. The full consequences of the dreadful affair had not yet shaped themselves in his mind.
He walked back to his room in the House of Commons, ruminating during those few steps upon the developments that might arise from Repton’s terrible accident, and beginning to plan how he should arrange matters with Demaine. It would want caution, for Demaine was slow to understand ... but then there was a corresponding advantage to that, for like all slow men, Dimmy could hold his tongue.... In fact he couldn’t help it.
The Prime Minister was pleased to think that he had that second string to his bow, and that opinion had been sufficiently prepared for the change. Repton would be certified of course, the sooner the better,—that would prevent any necessity for a peerage. Demaine’s taking the place would seem more natural, and those gadflies, the Moon and the Capon, would not fall into a fever about the appointment.... Perhaps after all the Repton business would be an advantage in the long run!
The more he thought of his choice of Demaine the more pleased he was, and he had almost persuaded himself that the appointment was due to some extreme cunning upon his own part, when, coming round from his room into the Lobbies, he casually asked a colleague where Demaine was at the moment.
The colleague didn’t know. “I have my back turned to the benches behind us you know,” he explained elaborately.
The Prime Minister cast upon him a look of contempt, and asked the doorkeeper whether he had seen Mr. Demaine.
“G. M. Demaine,” said the doorkeeper solemnly, running his finger down a list.
The Prime Minister was almost moved to reprove him, but dignity forbade.
“Not in the House!” said the man curtly, addressing as an equal the chief power in England; for his post was secure, the Prime Minister’s precarious.
“You mean not on the benches: I can see that for myself!” said the Prime Minister sharply.