MR. GLADSTONE
With my usual complaisance I sacrificed my work and went to her in the drawing-room. "Mr. Hamilton," she began, "I only wanted to expostulate with you for wasting Mr. Gladstone's time, and yours for that matter. Don't you know that Sir John Millais has painted Mr. Gladstone, and that is enough? You cannot expect to succeed where so many other men have failed. Mr. Gladstone is a very busy man, and he should not be disturbed in his work." "But, Madam," I protested, "we have arranged all that." "No, no, it must worry him;" and she continued on in this strain until I began to feel that this lady might possibly be the mouthpiece of a member of the family, and that it would be well to take her counsel and give up the sitting. I acquiesced and returned to the library, where I found Mr. Gladstone still reading. "At any cost," I thought, "I will work until he moves," and hurriedly began to paint. In a moment or two another lady came to me and said quietly, "Go on with your work, and don't mind mama. She is over-zealous." The portrait was finished there and then. I have never known whether Mr. Gladstone had not been a silent witness to these proceedings, and in consequence prolonged his reading for the purpose of aiding me. His thoughtfulness on subsequent occasions more than leads me to believe that he was always conscious of what transpired about him without in the least appearing to be. The hour spent that morning in finishing this portrait was probably the most intensely interesting episode of all my experience in portrait painting. The circumstances all combined to create a tumult of ideas that inspired and invigorated me. The man I was painting, what he stood for in the Empire, his picturesqueness, his surroundings, the contrast of great power and extreme simplicity, and
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