Mr. Delane, then editor of the "Times," had been invited to meet the
prime minister at a moment when the support of the "Times" would
have been specially valuable to the Liberal government. Instead of
using the opportunity to set forth his policy and invite an opinion
on it, Mr. Gladstone talked the whole time of dinner upon the
question of the exhaustion of the English coal-beds, to the surprise
of the company and the unconcealed annoyance of the powerful guest.
It was the subject then uppermost in his mind, and he either did not
think of winning Mr. Delane or disdained to do so. In the House of
Commons he was entirely free from airs, or, indeed, from any sort of
assumption of superiority. The youngest member might accost him in
the lobby and be listened to with perfect courtesy. But he seldom
addressed any one outside his own very small group of friends, and
more than once made enemies by omitting to notice and show some
attention to members of his party who, having been eminent in their
own towns, expected to be made much of when they entered Parliament.
Having himself plenty of pride and comparatively little vanity, he
never realized the extent to which, and the cheapness with which,
men can be captured and used through their vanity. And his mind,
flexible as it was in seizing new points of view and devising
expedients to meet new circumstances, did not easily enter into the
characters of other men. Ideas and causes interested him more than
personal traits did; his sympathy was keener and stronger for the
sufferings of nations or masses of men than with the fortunes of a
particular person. With all his accessibility and immensely wide
circle of acquaintances, he was at bottom a man chary of real
friendship, while the circle of his intimates became constantly
smaller with advancing years.

So it befell that though his popularity among the general body of