united  light.  But,  heavy  as  were  these  disappointments,
my  experiences  were  so  little  like  those  usually  associated
with  political  downfalls  that  I  had  often  to  dwell  upon  them
in  order  to  find  a  fair  counterpoise  of  trouble  for  the  almost
guilty  joys  of  release  from  the  never-ending  waste  of  brain
and  nerve  force — the  noise  and  fever  and  fret  of  a  thousand
public  responsibilities — the  crotchets  of  fatuous  friends,  the
rarity  of  safe  counsellors,  the  perversions  of  the  noblest
principles  and  the  plainest  facts — the  fathomless  difficulties
of  substituting  new  ideas  for  old  catch-words  in  the  popular
comprehension — the  interminable  "  treading  the  wine-press
all  alone  " — which  had  constituted  my  life  for  the  previous
twelve  months.  One  of  the  rewards  of  a  life  of  hard  work
is  that  rest  becomes  the  best  of  pleasures.  As  a  matter  of
fact  so  little  did  the  ordinary  penalties  of  political  disappoint-
ment, or  the  needs  for  fresh  excitement  by  which  they  are
ordinarily  assuaged,  count  either  with  myself  or  with  her  who
was  the  consolation  of  my  public  life  and  is  the  joy  of  the
days  of  my  retirement,  that  for  the  ensuing  twelve  months
we  were  never  tempted  to  stir  outside  our  western  cottage
and  its  garden's  bounds  in  search  of  health  or  pleasure.  We
accepted  the  political  blows  and  certain  lost  illusions  with
submission  as  our  share  of  the  public  burden.  For  the
rest,  one  was  not  without  hope  that  the  example  set  might
not  be  without  its  salutary  influence  upon  Irish  public  life
and  upon  English  respect  for  it,  and  there  was  the  further
comfort  that  the  books  in  writing  which  we  occupied  our
leisure  ^  might  not  impossibly  do  something  in  the  way  of
heightening  the  attractions  of  the  Irish  cause  in  English  eyes
and  giving  a  truer  insight  of  the  Irish  character  that  might
outweigh  at  least  as  long  a  period  of  service  in  Parliament.
