ad a very interesting
conversation with the Prince, and in the middle of it the Princess
came into the room, and then the Princesses, her daughters, who said
they would "like to shake hands with Colonel Gordon."

Before even the departure Gordon realised he had made a mistake, and
if there had been any way out of the dilemma he would not have been
slow to take it. As there was not, he fell back on the hope that he
might be able to discharge his uncongenial duties for a brief period,
and then seek some convenient opportunity of retiring. But as to his
own real views of his mistake, and of his unfitness for the post,
there never was any doubt, and they found expression when, in the
midst of a family gathering, he exclaimed: "Up to this I have been an
independent comet, now I shall be a chained satellite."

The same opinion found expression in a letter he wrote to Sir Halliday
Macartney an hour before he went to Charing Cross:--

"MY DEAR MACARTNEY,--You will be surprised to hear that I have
accepted the Private Secretaryship to Lord Ripon, and that I am
just off to Charing Cross. I am afraid that I have decided in
haste, to repent at leisure. Good-bye.--Yours,

C. G. GORDON."

His own views on this affair were set forth in the following words:--

"Men at times, owing to the mysteries of Providence, form judgments
which they afterwards repent of. This is my case. Nothing could have
exceeded the kindness and consideration with which Lord Ripon has
treated me. I have never met anyone with whom I could have felt
greater sympathy in the arduous task he has undertaken."

And again, writing at greater length to his brother, he explains what
took place in the following letter:--

"In a moment of weakness I took the appointment of Private
Secretary to Lord Ripon, the new Governor-General of India. No
sooner had I landed at Bombay than I saw that in my irresponsible
position I could not hope to do anything really to the purpose in
the face of the vested interests out there. Seeing this, and
seeing, moreover, that my views were so diametrically opposed to
those of the official classes, I resigned. Lord Ripon's position
was certainly a great consideration with me. It was assumed by
some that my views of the state of affairs were the Viceroy's,
and thus I felt that I should do him harm by staying with him. We