no better. He would have withdrawn the one which excited most clamour if it had been possible. Yes, I said, and nothing he had ever done or designed surprised me more than his willingness to sacrifice 'Vivian Grey' to 'Mrs. Grundy.' That story painted an audacious and unscrupulous adventurer, but all his plans failed in consequence. He was not a prosperous but an unprosperous hero, and the moral of the book plainly was that unscrupulous projects tumble down about the projector's head. The advocatus diaboli might insist indeed that the accomplished young neophyte of diplomacy was made too fascinating, and I could not deny that objection, for the first time I read 'Vivian Grey' was like the first time I drank champagne; I was intoxicated with an altogether new and mysterious enjoyment. As I spoke this last sentence, which was literally true, and spoken to a man whom I never expected to see again, I noticed a flush rise from Disraeli's cheeks to his forehead till it glowed with sudden light. The man, blasé with applause in many shapes, was moved with my manifest enjoyment of what pleased himself most, for under the mask of abstruse political profundity, which could be shifted like a domino, he was always at heart a man of letters, and the only one among his contemporaries. Other statesmen published books he was a dreamer and a creator whose truest life was in the region of imagination."
I have not re-read "Vivian Grey" since I have reached the age of being hypercritical, but I am pursuaded it will be for ever a book for ambitious boys.
Before leaving, I said, if he would allow me, I would speak for the last time of Irish affairs, without expecting any answer; and I cited rapidly the reforms which a Conservative statesman might, in. my opinion, make in that country without violating the principles of his party. He listened graciously, and when I finished he clasped me warmly by the hand and accompanied me outside the library door, where he renewed his farewell.
Sir Denham Norreys, who, though a decided Whig, had affectionate remembrance of O'Brien, brought the question of his return to Ireland privately before Lord Palmerston, and reported the result to me in this note:—
