232 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



When I asked him, for example, what 

 he thought of the proposal to end the 

 House of Lords, " I don't think of it at 

 all," he said. "The House of Lords 

 cannot be ended except by civil war 

 fighting in the streets." Other topics 

 upon which I ventured fared no better. 

 He dismissed each of them with a swift 

 judgment which left no fresh opening. 

 If you think that I must have been 

 leading in the conversation, you are quite 

 right. It is true that I was taking the 

 lead ; but what could I do ? Bismarck 

 was not taking it himself. When we were 

 on the way to the water, to reach which 

 we had to trudge downhill through 

 three or four pathless and muddy fields, 

 he mentioned that all his life he had been 

 subject to hot haste of temper, and that 

 he was only now, on retirement from the 

 Stock Exchange early in middle life, 

 getting the better of the habit. You 

 are not to think that I was ill at ease 

 with him. On the contrary, I was 

 delighted. He struck me as being a 



