MIRACULOUS INTERVIEW WITH JOWETT 173 



thinking of me at all and that if I could get away without 

 diverting his thoughts from Plato all might yet be well ; 

 so I said, very, very quietly, that I would be more regular 

 in future, and backed as noiselessly as possible towards 

 the door. I had nearly got there when he said : 



" Ah ! there was something else I had to speak to you 

 about." 



" Now for it ! " thought I, but I felt instinctively that 

 there was still a chance if I made no noise, and held my 

 breath ; and so it proved, for the slight spark of recollec- 

 tion about me died out ; he was again immersed in Plato, 

 and glancing up for a fraction of a second, he said : 



"I'll not detain you any longer." 



Even so, no burglar ever opened a door or passed from 

 a room more silently than 1 did from his that night, for 

 I was so absolutely conscious that any sort of noise would 

 break his train of thought and rouse him to remembrance 

 of me. 



I made my ghostly exit with perfect success, and for 

 me the incident of the picture-hanging was thus closed, 

 while my friends who were sent down could only envy 

 my extraordinary luck. I have told the story exactly 

 as it happened ; and it serves to show that a high-strung, 

 nervous organisation may sometimes serve you in good 

 stead. It was this that enabled me to appreciate in- 

 stinctively and at once how to save the position by keeping 

 as quiet as death. 



In the matter of fox-terriers I had done well that year, 

 1871. Diver, a dog I bought from Fred Sale, of Derby, 

 won first and Cup at Darlington, in good company, on the 

 27th July, and Mr Arrowsmith, who also became affected 

 by the fox-terrier craze, got a prize with his Tiny, by 

 Jester. I appear in The Field of that date as " The Rev. 

 W. Allison," this, doubtless, because of the Coxwold 

 Vicarage address. Diver was a flat-catching sort of 

 dog, for he had a very long head and beautiful ears. 

 Moreover, he was dead game, but he was a bull-terrier to 

 all intents and purposes, and I never fancied him. Just 



