But then the King asked 'the great question ... which,' says Newcastle, 'I own I could not answer: what shall we do if Pitt will not come? Fox will then be worse.' Then the King, with still increasing acuteness, asked, 'Suppose Pitt will not serve with you?' 'Then, Sir, I must go.' And so it was to end. But Newcastle would not without a struggle renounce the deleterious habit of office. He summoned Hardwicke to town for the purpose of approaching Pitt. He hurried to Lady Yarmouth and took counsel with her. All agreed that the only resource was Pitt, and that Hardwicke alone could sound him. Pitt was at Hayes, but leaving immediately for Bath. Time was short, the crisis acute, so Newcastle wrote, 'don't boggle at it.'[340] There was no boggling or hesitation on the part of the Chancellor: he hurried to London and saw Pitt on Tuesday, October 19. The interview lasted three hours and a half. When it was over, Hardwicke despatched a despairing note to Newcastle: 'I am just come from my conference, which lasted full 3-1/2 hours. His answer is an absolute final negative without any reserve for further deliberation. In short there never was a more unsuccessful negotiator.'[341] In a longer letter to his son Lord Royston, Hardwicke added but little more. On the main point Pitt was inexorable; he would have nothing to do with Newcastle. Hardwicke could not move him an inch. He was obdurate on 'men and measures.'[342] But 'men and measures' only meant Newcastle. Pitt had been repeatedly tricked by him; he had seen Fox repeatedly tricked by him when the meanest self-interest dictated honesty; he would not fall into the trap into which Fox had fallen; to join Newcastle now would be to be a willing dupe, and he was determined to govern if he was to govern, without this perpetual ambush at his side. Nor would he have any dealings with Fox. He thought, truly or untruly, that Fox had betrayed him, and he intended to try and do without treachery. He wished to enter on power clear of all suspicious connections, and indeed with little but the influence of his wife's family. So he resolved to see nothing even of Bute before meeting Hardwicke, and he summoned the Grenvilles to receive his report immediately after seeing Hardwicke.[343]