So it was on this occasion. Sentence followed sentence
in measured and perfect cadence; with absolute self-possession; and in a
voice not unduly pitched. And yet there were those traces of fatigue to
which I have alluded, and I have since heard that one of the few
occasions in his life when Mr. Gladstone had a sleepless night was on
the night before he introduced his second great Home Rule Bill. And it
should be added that, stirring and eloquent as were the opening
sentences, they were not listened to by the House with that
extraordinary enthusiasm which, on other occasions, sentences of this
splendid eloquence would have elicited. For what really the House wanted
to learn was the great enigma which had been kept for seven long
years--in spite of protests, hypocritical appeals, and, ofttimes,
tedious remonstrance from over-zealous and over-fussy friends.
[Sidenote: The Bill.]
By the time Mr. Gladstone had got to the Bill, he had exhausted a good
deal of his stock of voice, and yet he seemed to be less dependent than
usual on the mysterious compound which Mrs. Gladstone mixes with her own
wifely hand for those solemn occasions. It appeared that both she and
her husband had somewhat dreaded the ordeal.
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