as never been
fathomed. One Monday night, shortly after the opening of this Session of
1890, there appeared on the paper a resolution standing in the name of
Mr. Jennings, framed in terms not calculated to smooth the path of the
Conservative Government, just then particularly troubled. That Mr.
Jennings had prepared it in consultation with Lord Randolph Churchill
was an open secret. Indeed, Lord Randolph had undertaken to second it.
Before the motion could be reached a debate sprang up, in which Lord
Randolph interposed, and delivered a speech which, in Mr. Jennings's
view, entirely cut the ground from under his feet. He regarded this as
more than an affront--as a breach of faith, a blow dealt by his own
familiar friend. At that moment, in the House, he broke with Lord
Randolph, tore up his amendment and the notes of his speech, and
declined thereafter to hold any communion with his old friend.

No one, as I had opportunity of learning at the time, was more surprised
than Lord Randolph Churchill at the view taken of the event by Mr.
Jennings. He had not thought of his action being so construed, and had
certainly been guiltless of the motive attributed to him. There was
somewhere and somehow a misunderstanding. With Mr. Jennings it was
strong and bitter enough to last through what remained of his life.

[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.]

Whilst he did not act upon the first impulse communicated to one of his
friends, and forthwith retire from public life, he with this incident
lost all zest for it. Occasionally he spoke, choosing the level,
unattractive field of the Civil Service Estimates. It was a high tribute
to his power and capacity that on the few occasions when he spoke the
House filled up, not only with the contingent attracted by the prospect
of anything spicy, but by grave, financial authorities, Ministers and
ex-Ministers, who listened attentively to his acute criticism. His
public speaking benefited by a rare combination of literary style and
oratorical aptitude. There was no smell of the lamp about his polished,
pungent sentences. But they had the unmistakable mark of literary style.
Had his physical strength not failed, and his life not been embittered
by the episode alluded to, Louis Jennings would have risen to high
position in the Parliamentary field.

_Portraits of Celebrities at Different Times of their Lives._

MRS. BROWN-POTTER.

[Illustration: AGE 4.

_From a Photo. by Levitsky, Paris._]