]
On the following afternoon there was another scene in which clothes had
their share. At about three o'clock there entered the House together two
slight, alert figures--in both cases a little above the middle height,
and both clothed in a suit of clothes the exact counterpart of each
other in make, shape, and colour. There was a dominant and almost
monotonous grey in their appearance; but there was little of grey in
their looks. When at once there burst from the Tory and Unionists
Benches a loud, wild, prolonged huzzah, it was seen that this theatrical
little entrance at one and the same time of Joe and Mr. Balfour, was
their method of accentuating the Tory triumph in Linlithgow. The two
gentlemen seen entering together separated as they walked up the
floor--the Tory going to his place on the front Opposition Bench, the
Unionist to his corner seat on the Liberal side. It was a very skilfully
arranged bit of business, though there were critics who thought its
histrionic element a little out of place in the sombre and solemn
realities of public life, and a great national controversy. In the midst
of it all I looked at Mr. Gladstone. It is in such moments that you are
able to get a glimpse into all the great depths of this extraordinary
nature.
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