As my sister was in the country, my mother sent me. I sat
next to Arthur Balfour; Lord Pembroke was on the other side, round
the corner of the table; and I remember being intoxicated with my
own conversation and the manner in which I succeeded in making
Balfour and Pembroke join in. I had no idea who the splendid
stranger was. He told me several years later that he had sent
round a note in the middle of that dinner to Blanchie Waterford,
asking her what the name of the girl with the red heels was, and
that, when he read her answer, "Margot Tennant," it conveyed
nothing to him. This occurred in 1881 and was for me an eventful
evening. Lord Pembroke was one of the four best-looking men I ever
saw: the others, as I have already said, were the late Earl of
Wemyss, Mr. Wilfrid Blunt--whose memoirs have been recently
published--and Lord D'Abernon [Footnote: Our Ambassador in
Berlin.]. He was six foot four, but his face was even more
conspicuous than his height. There was Russian blood in the
Herbert family and he was the eldest brother of the beautiful Lady
Ripon [Footnote: The late wife of the present Marquis of Ripon.].
He married Lady Gertrude Talbot, daughter of the twentieth Earl of
Shrewsbury and Talbot, who was nearly as fine to look at as he
himself. He told me among other things at that dinner that he had
known Disraeli and had been promised some minor post in his
government, but had been too ill at the time to accept it. This
developed into a discussion on politics and Peeblesshire, leading
up to our county neighbours; he asked me if I knew Lord Elcho,
[Footnote: The father of the present Earl of Wemyss and March.
Pages:
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204