"It was extremely personal,--all that you said about
the purchase of livings," said Morton. "How was I to know that?"
rejoined the Senator. "When in private society I inveigh against
pickpockets I cannot imagine, sir, that there should be a
pickpocket in the company." As the Senator said this he was
grieving in his heart at the trouble he had occasioned, and was
almost repenting the duties he had imposed on himself; but, yet,
his voice was bellicose and antagonistic. The conversation was
carried on till Morton found himself constrained to say that though
he entertained great personal respect for his guest he could not go
with him again into society. He was ill at the time,--though
neither he himself knew it nor the Senator. On the next morning Mr.
Gotobed returned to London without seeing his host, and before the
day was over Mr. Nupper was at Morton's bedside. He was already
suffering from gastric fever.
The Senator was in truth unhappy as he returned to town. The
intimacy between him and the late Secretary of Legation at his
capital had arisen from a mutual understanding between them that
each was to be allowed to see the faults and to admire the virtues
of their two countries, and that conversation between them was to
be based on the mutual system. But nobody can, in truth, endure to
be told of shortcomings,--either on his own part or on that of his
country.
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