Watertown Republican

Lippincott's for November

About sixteen years ago a young lady went on her first visit to Hawarden. She had never been there before and had never met either Mr. or Mrs. Gladstone. Miss Gladstone, whose friend she was, had been unavoidably called away from home. The first evening, to her dismay, she was taken to dinner by Mr. Gladstone and placed by his side. Though invariably courteous, he never was good at making conversation with strangers. He was almost silent, she was too shy to start a subject, and it seemed as though the evening would be a failure.

Luckily, however, someone was there who knew well how to draw Mr. Gladstone out, in the shape of his nephew, the present Colonial secretary. It was at the time Mr. Gladstone was engaged in a correspondence with Ingersoll, the Atheist, and Alfred Lyttelton mentioned in a casual manner that he had met him. "How! You know that scoundrel!" Mr. Gladstone turned upon him with an eye of fire and thundered forth a denunciation of Ingersoll and all of his opinions, which lasted through the rest of the evening, to the mingled delight and relief of the shy girl. Her name was Edith Balfour, and a few years later she married Alfred Lyttelton.--Hon. Maud Lyttelton, in November Lippincott's Magazine.