about the bookmaker having pocketed L5000 at the Derby, then
complimented Colonel Ryder on his success as a lecturer in London
(pretty true, by the way), and congratulated Blackburn on his coming
marriage with Mrs. Callendar, the Tasmanian widow. What he said of
myself I am not going to repeat; but it was salaaming all round,
with the liquor good, and fun bang over the bulwarks.

How is Roscoe? I didn't see as much of him as you did, but I liked
him. Take my tip for it, that woman will make trouble for him some
day. She is the biggest puzzle I ever met. I never could tell
whether she liked him or hated him; but it seems to me that either
would be the ruin of any "Christom man." I know she saw something
of him while she was in London, because her quarters were next to
those of my aunt the dowager (whose heart the gods soften at my
wedding!) in Queen Anne's Mansions, S.W., and who actually liked
Mrs. F., called on her, and asked her to dinner, and Roscoe too,
whom she met at her place. I believe my aunt would have used her
influence to get him a good living, if he had played his cards
properly; but I expect he wouldn't be patronised, and he went for a
"mickonaree," as they say in the South Seas. . . . Well, I'm off
to the Spicy Isles, then back again to marry a wife. "Go thou and
do likewise."

By the way, have you ever heard of or seen Boyd Madras since he
slipped our cable at Aden and gave the world another chance?
I trust he will spoil her wedding--if she ever tries to have one.
May I be there to see!

Because we shall see nothing more of Hungerford till we finally dismiss
the drama, I should like to say that this voyage of his to the West