A VISIT TO TENNYSON 209 



painful to him to see his father making such an exertion ; but it 

 was satisfactory to find that he was none the worse for it, and 

 continued to talk afterwards with the greatest animation. One 

 interesting circumstance connected with this reading was that 

 when he came to the line 



Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, 



he paused, looked up, and said, "As I am afraid Mr. Gladstone 

 is doing now." 



The Duke and I had agreed to go by the same train to 

 London the next morning, which involved our starting soon after 

 breakfast, to which, as before mentioned, Lord Tennyson does 

 not come. But we were both asked to go up in turn to see him 

 in his library. We had a little interesting conversation, and he 

 bade me a kind farewell, expressing a hope that I would come 

 again to Aldworth. But three months afterwards I was one of 

 the great procession of mourners in Westminster Abbey on 

 Wednesday the 12 th of October. 



