His conclusion was to do nothing; and it was a conclusion to which he was prone at all times when he did not see his way clear.

This temperamental disinclination to take any action which might create difficulties was in these days at its height with him.
Since the spring his usually perfect health had been failing; he suffered from the physical inertia which accompanies the growth of a fatal disease; and sorrow upon sorrow, rebuff upon rebuff, had weakened the resilience of his mind.

It was not that he lacked courage or confidence in his own judgment; but he was bound as a statesman to make allowance for the estimate which others, his followers, would put upon that judgment when he declared it.

Sensitive by nature, he was deeply aware of failure which had resulted from the most disparaging of causes--not flat rejection, but belated, half-hearted and blundering adoption, of whatever course he had proposed.

He overrated, I am sure, the extent to which his personal position had been depreciated in the minds of those who were there.