was someone extra polite?
 Having escaped with some difficulty from the vague region of general compliments, which bears the same relation to that of business that Milton informs us the _Limbo Patrum_ has to the sensible and material earth, Christian asked his Grace of Buckingham, with the same blunt plainness with which he usually veiled a very deep and artificial character, whether he had lately seen Chiffinch or his helpmate?  