With one accord, with one quick and
simultaneous spring, the Irish members were on their feet--hats and
handkerchiefs were waved; there was the suggestion of tears under the
swelling cheers. Nor were the Irish left alone. The Liberals who had
slipped back joined in. The effectiveness of their cheers was heightened
by the fact that they were not in their places, but standing on the
floor. From out their cheering ranks stood the splendid figure--the
broad shoulders, the massive head, the shaggy beard and hair, all the
virility and sensitiveness that are found in the splendid form of Mr.
Allen--manufacturer and workman, poet and Radical. The Old Man,
splendidly composed, and yet profoundly moved, looked back, gave a
courtly bow, and then went out. And here it was that a little scene took
place of which the public prints have hitherto contained no mention. In
her corner place in the gallery had sat throughout this dazzling speech
that best of friends and truest of wives, who has been the guardian
angel of Mr. Gladstone's life; and with outstretched hands and dim eyes,
she received her triumphant husband in the corridor, where she had been
waiting for him.
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