I met him some six years ago when I was on a visit to my father's old
friend, General TEMPEST, at Dansington. Most people, I take it, have heard
of Dansington, that home of educational establishments, amusement, and
retired Indian Generals. Old General TEMPEST--LEONIDAS MARLBOROUGH TEMPEST
he had been christened by a warlike father, whose military aspirations had
been crushed by the necessity for a commercial career, and who had taken it
out of fate by devoting his son to heroism at the baptismal font, and by
subsequently buying him a commission in a crack regiment--General TEMPEST
was, in the days of which I speak, a hospitable veteran whose amiability
and good-nature had survived many severe campaigns in which he had taken
and given hard knocks wherever hard knocks were to be found. His
benevolence and hospitality were proverbial far beyond the limits of
Dansington, and his daughter CLARA was one of the prettiest girls in the
United Kingdom.

On the occasion of this visit I found a fellow guest, the identical WILFRID
COBBYN whom I have already mentioned. He had been there for a fortnight, I
learnt from ALEXANDER, the eldest hope of the TEMPESTS, and had made
himself a favourite with every member of the family. How they got to know
him I never quite discovered--indeed, I doubt if any of them could have
told me--and as to his previous history all they seemed to know was that
his father had property "somewhere in the West of England," that he himself
had travelled a great deal, and was now close upon thirty years old. I am
free to admit that after my first dinner in his company I had very little
inclination to worry myself about the details of his past, so cheerful and
fascinating did I find his gay companionship. I cannot quite explain the
charm of the man. He had a roving blue eye, a ruddy and glowing complexion,
and a laugh that seemed to kick all gloomy fancies into flinders, and to
carry those who heard it in a helter-skelter gallop of mirth. And then what
stories the fellow could tell! He had the General and me in perpetual