FLORAL CONVERSA TION. 
47 
subject of his being Senior Wrangler, and the duke, after 
hearing his son’s statement, was pleased to pronounce that 
the Dons were “offal.” Lord Evelyn went into the 
Guards, and I shall never forget him on his first return 
from London, after an absence of six months from the cas¬ 
tle. I was at tea in the lodge when his mail-phaeton 
drove up, and was hardly out of the porch, when his 
hearty “How are you, Oldacre?” drew my eyes to the 
handsomest, merriest, kindliest face that ever wore a 
moustache. And sitting by him was a brother officer, just 
the man you would have expected that my lord would 
choose for his friend, looking as though he would go at 
anything from an ox-fence to a redan, and yet would do 
no wilful hurt, as though his heart, like Tom Bowling’s, 
was brave and yet soft, and he was, in the full beauty of 
its meaning, a gentle man. I went back to my wife, who 
had Frank Chiswick’s wife, a baby, on her knee, and I 
said to her, “Susan, my lord’s come, and has brought 
home a husband for Lady Alice.” “I’ll believe it,” she 
answered, “ when I see his wings ! for the duke must have 
something more than mortal to suit his fancy in son-in- 
laws.” 
The deer having scampered away from the carriage 
