206 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



decided to take just one evening off and see the show, 

 which we did from a stage box. 



Madame Angot has never been surpassed for attraction, 

 and that performance was a genuine delight to jaded 

 undergraduates, but when I caught sight of two or three 

 men from another college who were just in view behind 

 the wings, there came an immediate wish to outpoint 

 them. Early next morning, therefore, I wired to Mrs Anne 

 Warner, the Bedford Hotel, Covent Garden : 



" Send hamper of choicest cut flowers and several good 

 bouquets to 77 George Street Oxford. 



" ALLISON." 



My good old friend of the Bedford Hotel acted splendidly 

 on this wire. 



Before that evening's performance there were flowers 

 enough to deck the stage and the whole company, and I 

 know not how many bouquets enough, at any rate, for 

 Mrs Listen and all the leading ladies. 



Now let no mistake be made. This was done simply and 

 solely to knock out the audacious men who had managed 

 to get behind the scenes, and it most effectually did so. 

 For the rest, we had no thought of ill, and having made 

 friends with old Mrs Listen and the rest, we took them 

 about Oxford, showed them the colleges, and went to the 

 theatre every night while the show lasted. Patty Laverne 

 was a dear little woman, one of the best, and quite beyond 

 reproach. She was such a good Clairette, however, that 

 I, who became quite infatuated with Madame Angot, 

 went on to Bristol with the company when they left 

 Oxford and that was after the last term had begun. 

 Again it was a case of attending the theatre and sending 

 in flowers every night, and I would not mention it here 

 had there been any trace of wrong in it. Patty Laverne 

 is dead now, but I fancy her Clairette must be a living 

 memory to all who ever saw it. 



It may be that I returned with a heavy heart to Oxford, 



