CHAMBERLAIN. Is all going on there—as usual?
DIST. V. Yes…yes. I don't find being in opposition makes as much difference as I expected, as regards work. One misses the permanent official who always did it for one. Wonderful creatures—who first invented them? Pitt, or was it Pepys? Oh, no, he was one of them. A product, perhaps, of the seventeenth century.
CHAMBERLAIN. In Tudor times Prime Ministers were permanent, weren't they?
DIST. V. Their heads weren't. Executions took the place of elections in those days. And there's something to be said for it.
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.