"It's a temperament." "I think it's a habit, too.

It may be acquired, mayn't it ?" "No, no," I fulminated, "it's precisely because it can't be acquired that the best men--the men like ..." I stopped suddenly, impressed by the idea that the thing was out of tone.

I had to assert myself more than I liked in talking to Churchill.

Otherwise I should have disappeared.

A word from him had the weight of three kingdoms and several colonies behind it, and I was forced to get that out of my head by making conversation a mere matter of temperament.