Page:Wives of the prime ministers, 1844-1906.djvu/205

MRS. GLADSTONE such devotion. His sermon (i.e. the Bishop's) the following day was striking and affecting; a crowded congregation, there was not even standing room. Evidently he is not allowing himself to have any idea of returning to live in England."

"December 20, 1841.—I find London very empty. William is absent from twelve to seven in the daytime, and works hard all the time he is at home, but I am greatly relieved to be with him again, though it is a little dreary sometimes in the day. I have been reading Hook's Sermons, and I have finished Ten Thousand a Year which, although vulgar, is clever and interesting. I sat an hour at his office at the Board of Trade.

"January 1, 1842.—A new year is always an awful thing. God give me grace to become better in the future! I feel acutely how little good I do—but to feel is not enough.

"January 6.—I am thirty to-day—a terrible thought. We had a dinner-party for Mr. Grenville (Uncle Tom). He sat nearly an hour with me in the afternoon. As he walked from Hamilton Place and back this was pretty well for eighty-seven. 169