There is something indeed strange, wistful, almost uncanny, in the unbreakable gentleness of that white figure, with the ivory complexion, the scant white hair, the large white collar and broad white shirt-front--there is something which becomes almost an obsession to the observer in watching the figure with its strangely tranquil and gentle expression in the heat and centre of all this fierce Parliamentary battle.
[Sidenote: And eagerness.] And what makes it all the more peculiar is that this strange gentleness does not go side by side with want of interest in the struggle.

On the contrary, all those around him and near him declare that never has Mr.
Gladstone been more keen of any subject than he has been on this Home Rule Bill.

He thinks of nothing else; he enjoys it all.

I saw a curious instance of this intensity of his interest about that time.

Having a word to say to one of the Ministers, I was seated for a moment on the Treasury Bench just beside the Chairman--Mr.Mellor.