MY first sight of Mr. Balfour was at the inauguration of Princes' Club, Knightsbridge, playing tennis. His attitude was an attendant one; he seemed to wait for the ball to do something, rather than to attack it and make it do his will. And this has been his attitude throughout life. It is exemplified by a story told by Mrs. Drew:[1] On their way down to dinner, on the great staircase of Mr. Gladstone's house in Carlton House Terrace, Mr. Balfour paused on the top, where the stairs divide, and, turning to Mrs. Drew, said, "Is there any reason why we should go down on the left rather than the right side?"
It will be remembered how he argued upon the silver question, brought forward by William Jennings Bryan, taking the ground that there might be two sides to that, and thereby puzzling the public and prolonging the controversy. In Margot's Autobiography, Dr. Jowett comments critically upon this attitude in one of his letters.
Men who golf much can never make up their minds, usually hold no opinion upon serious things, and assume that life, religion, and politics are like golf, an uncertain and unsteady game. Their mentality is in strong contrast to that of sportsmen who shoot big or small game. This sort of sport requires instant decision and action, and it
- ↑ Some Hawarden Letters
79
