The million pound banknote

'I'm so grateful! Just once more to find human interest in some voice and in some eye, in me and affairs of mine, after what I've been through here - lord! I could go down on my knees for it!' He gripped my hand hard, and braced up, and was all right and lively after that for the dinner - which didn't come off.

No; the usual thing happened, the thing that is always happening under that vicious and aggravating English system - the matter of precedence couldn't be settled, and so there was no dinner. Englishmen always eat dinner before they go out to dinner, because they know the risks they are running; but nobody ever warns the stranger, and so he walks placidly into the trap. Of course, nobody was hurt this time, because we had all been to dinner, none of us being novices except Hastings, and he having been informed by the Ambassador at the time that he invited him that in deference to the English custom he had not provided any dinner.

Everybody took a lady and processioned down to the dining-room, because it is usual to go through the motions; but there the dispute began. The Duke of Shoreditch wanted to take precedence, and sit at the head of the table, saying that he outranked an ambassador who represented merely a nation and not a monarch; but I refused to give way.

Vocabulary:

Brace: To make stronger
Come off: Here it means 'go as planned'
Vicious: Nasty and savage
Aggravating: Aggressively annoying
Precedence: Who goes first
Placidly: Calmly and peacefully
Novices: People doing something for the first time
Deference: Giving respect to
Procession: A dignified parade
Go through the motions:Do something you do not expect to work
Outrank: Have a higher position