" The feelings with which he approached this not altogether congenial task are described in the following passages from letters to Lady Derby: ....

"THE MOLT, September 14th, 1889.
"If my wonderful adventure into the Beaconsfield country comes off, I shall want all the help which Lord D.offered to give me.

I do not wonder that he and you were both startled at the proposition, and I am not at all sure that in a respectable series of Victorian Prime Ministers I should be allowed to treat the subject in the way that I wish.

The point is to make out what there was behind the mask.

Had it not been for Lothair I should have said nothing but a charlatan.
But that altered my opinion, and the more often I read it the more I want to know what his real nature was.