50 LORD LILFORD 



roof by the driver, and two armadillos inside 

 with us. He got some rooms opposite mine, and 

 the next morning the Irish slavey was crying 

 bitterly, for she said : " Them scaly bastes have 

 killed the cat," and so they had. He was 

 amused by her complaints, but took care that she 

 was substantially comforted. At this time his 

 spirits were very high, and though the days of 

 practical jokes and street adventures belonged to 

 a former generation, we were sometimes guilty 

 of mystifying respectable old gentlemen by 

 extraordinary questions, or treating puzzled 

 policemen to astonishing statements or com- 

 plaints. On one occasion, when he acted the 

 part of a foreigner who had lost his way in 

 London, the policeman whose aid I requested, 

 in answer to his voluble French replied, " I 'opes 

 Mr. Powys is well," having recognised him at 

 once from the fact of having been a North- 

 amptonshire Militiaman, which led to frater- 

 nising and suitable donations. 



' But to return to Oxford, where he made 

 many friends and no enemies. Christ Church 

 men when he joined the College had, and 

 perhaps still have, an inordinate idea of their 



