To which he replied: 

“There is a difference.  My uncle is a Tory... and I am a Liberal.”

I delighted in the late Lord Salisbury, both in his speaking and in his conversation.  I had a kind of feeling that he could always score off me with such grace, good humour and wit that I would never discover it.  He asked me once what my husband thought of his son Hugh’s speaking, to which I answered: 

“I will not tell you, because you don’t know anything about my husband and would not value his opinion.  You know nothing about our House of Commons either, Lord Salisbury; only the other day you said in public that you had never even seen Parnell.”

Lord Salisbury (pointing to his waistcoat):  “My figure is not adapted for the narrow seats in your peers’ gallery, but I can assure you you are doing me an injustice.  I was one of the first to predict, both in private and in public, that Mr. Asquith would have a very great future.  I see no one of his generation, or even among the younger men, at all comparable to him.  Will you not gratify my curiosity by telling me what he thinks of my son Hugh’s speaking?”

I was luckily able to say that my husband considered Lord Hugh Cecil the best speaker in the House of Commons and indeed anywhere, at which Lord Salisbury remarked: 

“Do you think he would say so if he heard him speak on subjects other than the Church?”

I assured him that he had heard him on Free Trade and many subjects and that his opinion remained unchanged.  He thought that, if they could unknot themselves and cover more ground, both he and his brother, Bob Cecil, had great futures.

I asked Lord Salisbury if he had ever heard Chamberlain speak (Chamberlain was Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time).

Lord Salisbury:  “It is curious you should ask me this.  I heard him for the first time this afternoon.”

Margot:  “Where did you hear him?  And what was he speaking about?”

Lord Salisbury:  “I heard him at Grosvenor House.  Let me see...what was he speaking about? ... (reflectively) Australian washer-women?  I think...or some such thing. ...”

Margot:  “What did you think of it?”

Lord Salisbury:  “He seems a good, business-like speaker.”

Margot:  “I suppose at this moment Mr. Chamberlain is as much hated as Gladstone ever was?”

Lord Salisbury:  “There is a difference.  Mr. Gladstone was hated, but he was very much loved.  Does any one love Mr. Chamberlain?”

One day after this conversation he came to see me, bringing with him a signed photograph of himself.  We of the Liberal Party were much exercised over the shadow of Protection which had been presented to us by Mr. Ritchie, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, putting a tax upon corn; and the Conservative Party, with Mr. Balfour as its Prime Minister, was not doing well.  We opened the conversation upon his nephew and the fiscal question.