America I have every reason to believe came Dr. Groschen. But if his
ancestors came from Rhine or Jordan, that he received his education on
the other side of the Atlantic I have no doubt. Why he came to Oxbridge
I cannot say. He appeared quite suddenly, like a comet. He brought
introductions from various parts of the world--from the British Embassy
at Constantinople, from the British and German Schools of Archaeology at
Athens, from certain French Egyptologists at Alexandria, and a holograph
letter from Archbishop Sarpedon, Patriarch of Hermaphroditopolis, Curator
of the MSS. in the Monastery of St. Basil, at Mount Olympus. It was this
last that endeared him, I believe, to the High Church party in Oxbridge.
Dr. Groschen was already the talk of the University, the lion of the
hour, before I met him. There was rumour of an honorary degree before I
saw him in the flesh, at the high table of my college, a guest of the
Provost. If Dr. Groschen did not inspire me with any confidence, I
cannot say that he excited any feeling of distrust. He was a small,
black, commonplace-looking little man, very neat in his attire, without
the alchemical look of most archaeologists. Had I known then, as I know
now, that he presented his first credentials to Professor Girdelstone, I
might have suspected him. Of course, I took it for granted they were
friends. When the University was ringing with praises of the generosity
of Dr. Groschen in transferring his splendid collections of Greek
inscriptions to the FitzTaylor Museum, I rejoiced; the next grant would
be devoted to science, in consideration of the recently enriched
galleries of the art and archaeological section. I only pitied the
fatuity of the authorities for being grateful. Dr. Groschen now wound
himself into everybody's good wishes, and the University degree was
already conferred. He was offered a fine set of rooms in a college
famous for culture. He became a well-known figure on the Q.P. But he
was not always with us; he went to Greece or the East sometimes, for the
purpose, it was said, of adding to the Groschen collection, now the glory