thwarted all his steps. His face looked
much harder then, and his eye glanced restlessly round, taking in
every movement of the crowd in the pavilion. He seemed to exist in a
hectic flush of life, and was utterly incapable of taking rest. Now his
face, though still thin, has filled up. The lines on his brow and under
his eyes, though too deeply furrowed to be eradicable, have been
smoothed down, and there is about his face a sense of peace and a
pleasant look of rest.

Chiltern says that sometimes when Mr. Gladstone has been in the House
this Session he has, during the progress of a debate, momentarily
sprung into his old attitude of earnest, eager attention, and there
have been critical moments when his interposition in debate has
appeared imminent. But he has conquered the impulse, lain back again
on the bench, and let the House go its own way. It is very odd,
Chiltern says, to have him sitting there silent in the midst of so
much talking. This was specially felt during the debate about those
Irish Acts with which he had so much to do.

Chiltern tells me that whilst the debate on the Irish Bill was going on
there came from no one knows where, passed from hand to hand along the
benches, a scrap of paper on which was written this verse from "In
Memoriam":--

"At our old pastimes in the hall
We gambol'd making vain pretence
Of gladness, With an awful sense
Of one mute Shadow watching all."

Although the gangway has a distinct and important significance in
marking off _nuances_ of political parties, it appears that it does not
follow as an inevitable sequence that because a man sits behind the
Ministerial bench he is therefore a Taper or a Tadpole, or that because
he takes up his quarters below the gangway he is a John Hampden. The
distinction is more strongly marked on the Liberal side; but even there
there are some honest men who usually obey the crack of the Whip. On the
Conservative side the gangway has scarcely any significance, and though
the Lewisian "Party," which consists solely of Charles, sits there, and
from time to time reminds the world of its existence by loudly shouting
in its ear, it may always be depended upon in a real party division to
swell the Ministerial majority by one vote. The Scotch members, who sit
chiefly on the Liberal side, spread themselves impartially over seats
above and below the gangway. The Home Rule members, who also favour the
Liberal side, sit together