ncouraged him, yet at the same time she acted as
ballast, and was always explaining his jokes; sometimes she was in
danger of explaining him entirely away. She loved to tell of his
earlier exploits. How often, when younger, he had collected money for
charities (particularly for the Deaf and Dumb Cats' League, in which he
took special interest), by painting halves of salmon and ships on fire
on the cold grey pavement! Armed with an accordion, and masked to the
eyes, he had appeared at Eastbourne, and also at the Henley Regatta, as
a Mysterious Musician. At the regatta he had been warned off the
course, to his great pride and joy. Mrs Mitchell assured Edith that his
bath-chair race with a few choice spirits was still talked of at St
Leonard's (bath-chairmen, of course, are put in the chairs, and you
pull them along). Mr Mitchell was beaten by a short head, but that, Mrs
Mitchell declared, was really most unfair, because he was so
handicapped--his man was much stouter than any of the others--and the
race, by rights, should have been run again.

When he was at Oxford he had been well known for concealing under a
slightly rowdy exterior the highest spirits of any of the
undergraduates. He was looked upon as the most fascinating of
_farceurs_. It seems that he had distinguished himself there less for
writing Greek verse, though he was good at it, than for the wonderful
variety of fireworks that he persistently used to let off under the
dean's window. It was this fancy of his that led, first, to his
popularity, and afterwards to the unfortunate episode of his being sent
down; soon after which he had married privately, chiefly in order to
send his parents an announcement of his wedding in _The Morning Post_,
as a surprise.

Some people had come in after dinner--for there was going to be a
little _sauterie intime_, as Mrs Mitchell called it, speaking in an
accent of her own, so appalling that, as Vincy observed, it made it
sound quite improper. Edith watched, intensely amused, as she saw that
there were really one or two people present who, never having seen
Mitchell before, naturally did not recognise him now, so that the
disguise was considered a triumph. There was something truly agreeable
in the deference he was showing to a peculiarly yellow lady in red,
adorned with ugly real lace, and beautiful false hair. She was
obviously delighted with the Russian prince.

'Winthrop is a wonderful man!' said Mrs Mitchell to Edith, a