196 Later Years 



VII 



garden was promptly carried out by me for fear 

 worse might befall. But I could never make the run 

 down there cock-tight ; they used to leak out and 

 either come up to the house, reserving their clarion 

 crow till well under the study window, — a performance 

 rewarded promptly with miscellaneous projectiles and 

 observations, — or they would go away and have a 

 quiet fight with a neighbour's valued dorking — in fact, 

 they kept me in such a state of nervous apprehension 

 that I neglected other things and got into trouble 

 that way. Also, when I had discovered that one 

 of the champions had left his home, I used to go 

 after him on to the neighbour's premises regardless 

 of consequences ; for, above all things, fighting was 

 a thing forbidden by me. I knew how to prevent 

 them fighting each other ; an old gardener, whose 

 main boast was that when a boy he had been 

 with the great Lord Derby, — he of the ' Derby 

 Strain,' of course, I mean, — taught me how to 

 do that ; but when I missed Ki Ki from his 

 domestic circle, and saw his red cloth cloak 

 sticking in the hedge, I knew what was going on 

 and went after him. Hence if I was wanted just 

 then by my family I was not available ; and when I 

 returned with Ki Ki under my arm, furious at having 

 had his pleasure spoilt by a silly interfering girl, I 

 had as lively a time as Ki Ki had lost. Ki Ki, in 

 fact, nearly brought me to an early grave, — he died 

 himself in his bed at the ripe age of sixteen years, to 

 my great regret, — but still, nothing ever would make 



