206 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK 



CH. 



his diary of his surprise " to find that his 

 children were not greatly astonished to hear of it. 

 Apparently he had deemed the progress of his 

 wooing to be more secret and discreet than it 

 really had been. 



They were married on May 18, going to France 

 and Switzerland for the honeymoon and returning 

 on June 13. They took rooms at first in Queen 

 Anne's Mansions, and, of course, had the country 

 house at High Elms. 



Conceivably it might be thought that all 

 auguries were not ideally favourable in this union 

 of a high-spirited young girl, for such was Miss 

 Alice Fox Pitt, with a middle-aged savant. It 

 was, however, from the first a union of the most 

 true, tender, and devoted mutual affection, an 

 affection which seemed to increase continually, if 

 that could be possible, with the passage of the 

 years. They were married in the same year that 

 Rolfe, his youngest son by the first marriage, left 

 Eton and went to work in Mr. Golding's office in 

 the City. Doubtless Miss Fox Pitt, by her upbring- 

 ing, was more disposed than many a girl of her age 

 and character to give the due meed of admiration 

 to the extraordinary qualities and abilities of her 

 husband. General Pitt Rivers was a man of 

 wide interests, with a special bent towards 

 archaeology, and his daughter would have been 

 educated in an atmosphere in which due honour 

 was paid to the distinction of men of learning. 

 And we have to remember, too, the very excep- 

 tional character of this particular man of learning 

 whom the young lady's charm had fascinated. 

 He was wonderfully youthful both in mind and 



