40 LIFE OF TEGETMEIER 



commissioned to compile and write several text- 

 books for the Society. Here it may be mentioned 

 it was while visiting a class-room of the College 

 in Gray's Inn Boad in the dark, that he struck 

 his face against a chair put in an unusual position ; 

 his spectacles were broken and a piece of glass 

 struck and permanently injured his left eye. 

 Although the disablement did not prevent his 

 subsequent studies or work, it was always a 

 source of slight annoyance to him ; it was accom- 

 panied by — if not the cause of — Ins dislike of 

 darkness. The loss of the two salaries, conse- 

 quent on the double dismissal from the College, 

 forced the newly-married couple to start house- 

 keeping in a very humble way — even for the 

 Bohemian at heart that Tegetmeier always was ; 

 and they took up their abode in a couple of rooms 

 in a side street near Drury Lane. 



Doubtless, the young writer and lecturer had 

 full confidence in his powers to support the 

 newly-founded home : possibly he did not believe 

 that the College authorities would really carry 

 out their threat to dismiss so useful a man as he. 

 But anyhow, characteristically enough, he took 

 the risk at the time, and afterwards always 

 referred to the " two rooms, a bedstead, a table 

 and a couple of chairs " period with great jocular- 

 ity and evident pride. The "two-room" time, as 

 a matter of fact, lasted but a little while, I believe ; 

 at any rate, in about a year's time we find the 



