He must go to Saulsby, and he
must do so at once. He was about to see Mr. Gresham immediately,
--within half an hour; and as he could not expect at the most above
twenty-four hours to be allowed to him for consideration, he must
go down to Saulsby on the same evening. As he walked to the Prime
Minister's house he called at a telegraph office and sent down his
message. "I will be at Saulsby by the train arriving at 7 P.M. Send
to meet me." Then he went on, and in a few minutes found himself in
the presence of the great man.
The great man received him with an excellent courtesy. It is the
special business of Prime Ministers to be civil in detail, though
roughness, and perhaps almost rudeness in the gross, becomes not
unfrequently a necessity of their position. To a proposed incoming
subordinate a Prime Minister is, of course, very civil, and to a
retreating subordinate he is generally more so,--unless the retreat
be made under unfavourable circumstances. And to give good things
is always pleasant, unless there be a suspicion that the good thing
will be thought to be not good enough.
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