AFTER RETURN HOME MARRIAGE 153 



else. The extraordinary versatility and energy of 

 Lord Brougham had made a great impression on me 

 at that time and long previously, and I listened 

 eagerly to anecdotes of him. A timid and rather 

 elderly lady had told me that Lord Brougham was 

 once a guest at her brother's house, where his 

 appearance was awaited with awe. The great man 

 arrived, talked incessantly and wonderfully well during 

 dinner, but retired early on account of business letters. 

 Later on, while she was preparing for bed, an awful 

 yell or scream, which she could only describe in the 

 negative terms of unearthly and totally unlike anything 

 she had ever heard before, rang through the corridor. 

 She tremblingly snatched up whatever dress was 

 at hand, and issued in terror to learn what had 

 happened. She met Lord Brougham's valet with a 

 candle in his hand, walking leisurely, and cried to 

 him, "What is it? What is it?" He answered 

 unconcernedly, "It is only his Lordship calling for 

 me ; that is his usual way." 



There is a remarkably good wax effigy of Lord 

 Brougham as a young man in Madame Tussaud's 

 collection, perhaps the most real-looking of any there. 

 Later on I was taken to see him in his house at 

 Cannes, a few years before his death. Doubts had 

 recently been expressed in the newspapers about his 

 version of the circumstances attending the dissolution 

 of Parliament by William iv., which made Lord 

 Brougham exceedingly wroth. It was fine but sad 

 to witness the unmeasured indignation of the old hero, 

 punctuating his remarks as he sat,* by heavy digs 

 into the sand with the point of his umbrella, held in 

 both hands like a dagger. 



