There is something of a shift in the atmosphere here. It is in the very earliest stages, for sure. And it is certainly fragile. Witness Tuesday. Mr Hague carries the ballot called to endorse his leadership and programme of party reform. Mr Major bows out with customary grace, winning a rapturous reception from those he led to the worst Tory defeat since 1906. They cheer on as Mr Hague explains the reasons for it: the Tory party in parliament was seen as "divided, arrogant, selfish and conceited". Nor do they flinch when he proclaims a vision of a future party representative of Britain's multi-cultural society. Yet he finds himself overshadowed by the outpourings of two political "dinosaurs", Norman Tebbit and Alan Clark.
Yesterday, Norman Lamont and Sir Leon Brittan slugged it out on the fringes over Europe. And the sense of deja vu was sustained as Kenneth Clarke failed to rule himself out as a future leader.
The problem for Mr Hague, of course, is that Mr Clarke can't yet be counted among the dinosaurs. The jury on the new Tory leader will remain out for some time. That said, "young William" has made a better start than he might have dared hope.
Troublesome headlines are an inevitable (and welcome) diversion from conference stage management. However, there are already signs of a drawing-back from the tone of ridicule which seemed to engulf Mr Hague just a few weeks ago. The sense is that, the Tory party having spoken, its new leader is entitled to time and space in which to prove himself.
He can claim some of the credit himself. Many on Tuesday discovered for the first time that he is a very competent platform performer (better by far than his predecessor). Among critics and commentators there is understanding that, while "Hague the foetus" may seem humorous, it hardly passes for serious appraisal of a man who was president of the Oxford Union aged 20; took a first class degree the following year; flew high as a management consultant with an internationally renowned company; won his parliamentary seat aged 28; became the youngest cabinet minister since the war, aged 34; and at 36 now leads his party.
None of these provide any guarantee of ultimate success. Doubts there undoubtedly are, and these will persist. However, there is already palpable concern about an over-mighty Labour government. There is understanding that politics requires a coherent and effective opposition. And, once free of the conference hothouse, we may expect a greater willingness to see Mr Hague judged on issues of substance.
Personal abuse of politicians can be highly entertaining. But it is prudent to recall what the pundits and cartoonists once made of "Bambi". Remember him?
One respected commentator ventures that Mr Hague "isn't yet three quarters of the politician Tony Blair is". That will strike many as a decidedly generous assessment. But the man in question is a committed Blairite, with a keen appreciation of the fact (masked by the consequences of first-past-the-post) that Labour's historic election win was secured with fewer votes than John Major claimed in 1992. He would also appreciate that much of Britain's political agenda still follows the tracks laid by Margaret Thatcher.
Tony Blair's occupation of conservative ground represents an undoubted problem for Mr Hague. But it also points to tensions and fractures in the Blair coalition, when the Prime Minister starts to make the hard choices of which he spoke in Brighton last week.
So the Tories comfort themselves with the certainty that the political landscape will change. They are also encouraged to reflect that they don't start from Labour's base in the 1980s, in that they have no need to junk an entire ideology and reinvent themselves - burying all trace of their past in the process.
But their past will haunt them for a long time to come. It is not enough for them to blame parliamentary division and sleaze, and conclude that all on the policy front was hunky dory. In all this week's breast-beating there is conspicuously no reference to Black Wednesday, to the recession, the painful memories of negative equity or the little matter of broken tax promises. True, they have bequeathed Labour a relatively healthy economy. But it is by no means as uniform or solid as they would claim - and the recovery of their reputation for economic competence will not come easy. They also have to begin the process of re-defining Toryism in the radically changed Britain of Tony Blair.
Mr Hague has literally a mountain to climb. But he has made a start - and in one crucial area which might give Tories hope for the future. For the party's authoritarians must fear that Mr Hague is not "one of us".
We can make much of the fact, and fairly, that 500 Tories are prepared to cheer Lord Tebbit's attack on multiculturalism. But we may also be entitled to draw some conclusion from Mr Hague's dismissal of Lord Tebbit's "outdated" views - and his blunt warning that if he doesn't want to be part of the Tory team he should "get off the field".
It's only a start. But we may even come to see that "naff" appearance at the Notting Hill Festival in a different light.