But the memory of escape such as that would break his heart as surely as the failure.
When the Duke was announced he rose to greet his old friend almost with fervour.

"It is a shame," he said, "to bring you out so late.

I ought to have gone to you." "Not at all.

It is always the rule in these cases that the man who has most to do should fix himself as well as he can where others may be able to find him." The Duke of St.Bungay was an old man, between seventy and eighty, with hair nearly white, and who on entering the room had to unfold himself out of various coats and comforters.
But he was in full possession not only of his intellects but of his bodily power, showing, as many politicians do show, that the cares of the nation may sit upon a man's shoulders for many years without breaking or even bending them.

For the Duke had belonged to ministries for nearly the last half century.