ty in dealing with undergraduates was the parent difficulty.
"If I was dictator of Oxford it should be a city of refuge for young
men, and no father or mother should be allowed to enter it during
twenty-four weeks of the year," was one of the things he was supposed
to have said, and if my father happened to get him upon that subject I
foresaw trouble.

But the question settled itself, for my mother was sitting on the
verandah in front of the hotel and came down the garden to meet us. I
had heard the Warden chuckle three times as we had walked up the road,
and though I could not imagine how Nina was amusing him, I thanked
goodness that he seemed to be thinking about ordinary things.

"I have the pleasure of knowing your brother," he said as soon as he
was introduced; "he and I disagree upon every subject I have ever had
the privilege of discussing with him."

"I do not think my brother would ever discuss a subject with any one
whom he expected to agree with. It would be hardly worth while," my
mother answered, and the Warden looked at her quickly.

"Surely the benefit arising from a discussion does not depend wholly,
or I may say chiefly, from disagreement upon the subject discussed. A
Cabinet Council, for instance, may conceivably arrive at a satisfactory
and at the same time an unanimous conclusion."

"My brother would not call that a discussion," my mother answered
shortly, and the Warden said "Ah," which meant, I believe, that however
the Bishop defined the word discussion, it was useless to discuss
anything with ladies.

"You will have some tea?" my mother said, as soon as we had reached the
verandah.

"You will excuse me, my absence from the hotel at which I have taken a
room for to-night, has already been too prolonged. You drink tea in
France, madam?"

"We brought our tea with us."

"Admirable foresight, but it remains for you to see the water boiling,"
and then as if he knew that he had hurt my mother's feelings and wished
to make some recompense, he continued, "The Bishop, madam, is a man for
whom I have a most sympathetic regard, neither politics nor pageants
divert him from the work he has pledged himself to do; I know of no man
more fitted to be a Bishop."

My mother bowed slightly, and said nothing, and really it was not easy
to guess from the Warden's tone whether he considered any man fit to be
a Bishop.

"We think differently on many subjects, and on one, I may say, I think
with perfec