"That's what it comes to—stated in plain words and without diplomatic flourishes. True, I had sent in my resignation, but ... the long and the short of it is that after a debate on the Address, and the carrying of an amendment, Downing Street has agreed that the time has come to associate the people of Egypt with the government of the country."
"Well, sir?"
"Well, as that is a policy against which I have always set my face, a policy I have considered premature, perhaps suicidal, the Secretary of State has cabled that, being unable to ask me to carry into effect a change that is repugnant to my principles, he is reluctantly compelled to accept my resignation."
Gordon could not speak, but again the old man tried to laugh.
"Of course the pill is gilded," he continued, clasping his blue-veined hands in front of his breast. "The Foreign Secretary told Parliament that my resignation (on the ground of age and ill health, naturally) was the heaviest blow that had fallen on English public life within living memory. He also said that while other methods might be necessary for the future, none could have been so good as mine in the past. And then the King——"
"Yes, father?"
A hard, half-ironical smile passed over the old man's face.
"The King has been graciously pleased to grant me an Earldom, and even to make me a Knight of the Garter."
There was a moment's painful silence, and then the Consul-General said—
"So I go home immediately."