An Autobiography, vols 1,2 | Page 9

men we loved and gave us the material help in money which enabled us
to marry them. I find exactly the opposite plan adopted by most parents:
they sacrifice their children to loveless marriages as long as they know
there is enough money for no demand ever to be made upon
themselves.
"I think I understood my father better than the others did. I guessed his
mood in a moment and in consequence could push further and say more
to him when he was in a good humour. I lived with him, my mother
and Eddy alone for nine years (after my sister Laura married) and had a
closer personal experience of him. He liked my adventurous nature.
Ribblesdale's [Footnote: Lord Ribblesdale, of Gisburne.] courtesy and
sweetness delighted him and they were genuinely fond of each other.
He said once to me of him:
"'Tommy is one of the few people in the world that have shown me

gratitude.'"
I cannot pass my brother-in-law's name here in my diary without some
reference to the effect which he produced on us when he first came to
Glen.
He was the finest-looking man that I ever saw, except old Lord
Wemyss, [Footnote: The Earl of Wemyss and March, father of the
present Earl.] the late Lord Pembroke, Mr. Wilfrid Blunt and Lord
D'Abernon. He had been introduced to my sister Charty at a ball in
London, when he was twenty-one and she eighteen. A brother-officer
of his in the Rifle Brigade, seeing them waltzing together, asked him if
she was his sister, to which he answered:
"No, thank God!"
I was twelve when he first came to Glen as Thomas Lister: his fine
manners, perfect sense of humour and picturesque appearance
captivated every one; and, whether you agreed with him or not, he had
a perfectly original point of view and was always interested and
suggestive. He never misunderstood but thoroughly appreciated my
father. ...
Continuing from my diary:
"My papa was a character-part; and some people never understood
character-parts.
"None of his children are really like him; yet there are resemblances
which are interesting and worth noting.
"Charty on the whole resembles him most. She has his transparent
simplicity, candour, courage laid want of self-control; but she is the
least selfish woman I know and the least self-centred. She is also more
intolerant and merciless in her criticisms of other people, and has a
finer sense of humour. Papa loved things of good report and never
believed evil of any one. He had a rooted objection to talking lightly of
other people's lives; he was not exactly reverent, but a feeling of kindly

decent citizenship prevented him from thinking or speaking slightingly
of other people.
"Lucy has Papa's artistic and generous side, but none of his self-
confidence or decisiveness; all his physical courage, but none of his
ambition.
"Eddy has his figure and deportment, his sense of justice and emotional
tenderness, but none of his vitality, impulse or hope. Jack has his
ambition and push, keenness and self-confidence; but he is not so
good-humoured in a losing game. Frank has more of his straight tongue
and appreciation of beautiful things, but none of his brains.
"I think I had more of Papa's moral indignation and daring than the
others; and physically there were great resemblances between us:
otherwise I do not think I am like him. I have his carriage, balance and
activity--being able to dance, skip and walk on a rope--and I have
inherited his hair and sleeplessness, nerves and impatience; but
intellectually we look at things from an entirely different point of view.
I am more passionate, more spiritually perplexed and less self-satisfied.
I have none of his powers of throwing things off. I should like to think I
have a little of his generosity, humanity and kindly toleration, some of
his fundamental uprightness and integrity, but when everything has
been said he will remain a unique man in people's memory."
Writing now, fourteen years later, I do not think that I can add much to
this.
Although he was a business man, he had a wide understanding and
considerable elasticity.
In connection with business men, the staggering figures published in
the official White Book of November last year showed that the result of
including them in the Government has been so remarkable that my
memoir would be incomplete if I did not allude to them. My father and
grandfather were brought up among City people and I am proud of it;
but it is folly to suppose that starting and developing a great business is
the same as initiating and conducting a great policy, or running a big

Government Department.
It has been and will remain a puzzle over which intellectual men are
perpetually if not permanently groping:
"How comes