CHAPTER XLII 



EFFORTS FOR FREE TRADE (1909) 



(Age 75) 



It is one of the most grievous conditions of our 

 human hfe that if it be prolonged at all beyond 

 the normal span each successive year is inevitably 

 marked by the loss of now one and now another 

 of the friends whose sympathy has done much 

 to give life its value. Lord Avebury's lot was 

 in many ways an exceptionally happy one. The 

 young wife whom he had married in his middle 

 age repaid his affection with a whole-hearted 

 devotion, and his relations with his children had 

 the friendliness of a brother's love united to the 

 protective authority of a father : yet, as the 

 years went by, he could not evade the shadow 

 cast by the death of some most near and dear. 

 As we have seen, the first of his brothers to be 

 taken was the youngest, Edgar, and in all the 

 early part of 1909 Lord Avebury was very 

 anxious about the health of Beaumont. Of all 

 the brothers, Beaumont was the one on whom 

 the painful family heritage of gout had always the 

 strongest grip, and it became apparent that his 

 fine constitution would not be able to endure 

 its repeated attacks much longer. Rolfe, also, 



263 



