MR. GLADSTONE
an hour when the door at the foot of the sofa opened and a tall, well-dressed man entered, bearing in his hand a large bundle of papers opened flat. After saying "Good morning" and glancing at me with a little surprise in his eyebrows, he sat down in the chair behind the sofa and, drawing it forward, faced Mr. Gladstone, who dropped his book and looked at him in an attitude of attention. Sir Algernon West began without preamble to read the letters and other communications, to which Mr. Gladstone gave his replies—"Yes" or "No"—without comment, or in a few words indicated the general tenor of the reply, leaving it to the well-trained mind of Sir Algernon to amplify. Now and again Mr. Gladstone would interrupt the reading of a long letter, or of any very important or perhaps personal appeal, and taking it, would say, "I will answer that myself."
It is impossible for me now to recall what Sir Algernon West said in regard to letters of a private character intended only for Mr. Gladstone's information, but I do remember that he told Sir Algernon he had arranged to have them read in the adjoining room. On one or two occasions the Prime Minister and his secretary left me for a few minutes, but this happened, I was glad to note, very rarely, as it occasioned me not a little embarrassment to think that my presence caused the Prime Minister the inconvenience of rising from his resting position on the couch. Mr. Gladstone knew the art of resting. His strength and activity were unusual in men of his age, but he wasted neither, so that he could call at once upon all his reserves and use them in any emergency. So soon as the secretary left the room, Mr. Gladstone would rise with the letters he had retained and go to his desk and begin
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