Old Mr. Grenville sighed and continued to persuade:
"But now, with this mess... you could very well become the scapegoat for the future disasters. I mean, the Marquess of Wellesley is an extremely outstanding politician, and even he's been left in a rather sorry state."
"You're absolutely right," said Lord Grenville, nodding earnestly, "I've never been very outstanding since I was a child, far less so in politics and strategy than the Marquess of Wellesley, uh, and not as much as the former Foreign Minister, the Duke of Leeds either."
He smiled somewhat awkwardly: "To tell you the truth, I still haven't quite understood by what trickery the French people managed to defeat the Marquess of Wellesley."
"Then you still...?"
