extreme party convictions, and thought the great needs of our beloved
Church were conciliation, moderation, and above all "amolgamation"--so he
pronounced the word. Mrs. Dixon was tall, imposing, splendid, well fitted
for the Episcopal order, with gifts that would have shone at the palace.
There were daughters, who studied German Literature, and thought Miss
Frances Ridley Havergal wrote poetry, but Lucian had no fear of them; he
dreaded the boys. Everybody said they were such fine, manly fellows, such
gentlemanly boys, with such a good manner, sure to get on in the world.
Lucian had said "Bother!" in a very violent manner when the gracious
invitation was conveyed to him, but there was no getting out of it. Miss
Deacon did her best to make him look smart; his ties were all so
disgraceful that she had to supply the want with a narrow ribbon of a
sky-blue tint; and she brushed him so long and so violently that he quite
understood why a horse sometimes bites and sometimes kicks the groom. He
set out between two and three in a gloomy frame of mind; he knew too well
what spending the afternoon with honest manly boys meant. He found the
reality more lurid than his anticipation. The boys were in the field, and
the first remark he heard when he got in sight of the group was:

"Hullo, Lucian, how much for the tie?" "Fine tie," another, a stranger,
observed. "You bagged it from the kitten, didn't you?"

Then they made up a game of cricket, and he was put in first. He was
l.b.w. in his second over, so they all said, and had to field for the
rest of the afternoon. Arthur Dixon, who was about his own age,
forgetting all the laws of hospitality, told him he was a beastly muff
when he missed a catch, rather a difficult catch. He missed several
catches, and it seemed as if he were always panting after balls, which,
as Edward Dixon said, any fool, even a baby, could have stopped. At last
the game broke up, solely from Lucian's lack of skill, as everybody