Page:The Prime Minister by Hall Caine.djvu/32

8  How little indeed!  A hard, austere, unyielding nature, without a touch of sentiment, and yet. . .  A person of such underlying tenderness that his highest, gravest, sternest moment may be broken in upon by the cry of a little child!  Strange contradiction!

 Extraordinary combination of conflicting characteristics!

 What a victim for the designing man!

 Or the scheming woman!  No!  No?  The scheming woman—no! Robert Temple carries one talisman against that kind of peril [Pointing to portrait over fireplace], the memory of his dead wife.