Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/150

 sooner or later. His dinner-parties at the House of Commons were always rather informal affairs, and his table had a way of expanding in a telescopic fashion as the dinner proceeded.

Young hostesses given to panic by the non-appearance of expected, or appearance of non-expected guests, might well learn a lesson from Lady H. H.'s undisturbed serenity when met in the Lobby with the information that "the Chinese Minister is coming, and an Arctic explorer, and the Postmaster-General said he would come if he could, and also some friends whose names I cannot recall at the moment!"

It was never H. H.'s way to make elaborate plans for the right people being asked to meet each other, but such was the force of his genial personality that the most incongruous company would meet together and exchange views with the greatest cordiality.

Mr Justin M'Carthy's reply to an invitation given in 1910:

I could not tell you how much I feel touched by your most kind invitation and how much sincere regret it gives me that I am not able to accept it. You will already have heard from my daughter the full explanations of the reasons why I cannot even think of becoming a guest at your proposed dinner in the House of Commons. There is no entertainment I should enjoy more than a House of Commons dinner, and there is no man living from whom I should welcome such a kindness more cordially. than from yourself. But Charlotte has told you that I have for many years lived as one absolutely withdrawn from social as well as from public life, and although I am getting on very well in my course of improvement, I have yet some dreary path of self-protection to plod along