'Z ORAL CONVERSA 710A'. 
47 
subject ol is 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, Oldsicre ?” 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 yuu >,ould 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- 
.^ws.” 
The deer having scampered away from the carriage 
