every lecture had been attended by
a large audience which completely filled the room. Men used to wait
outside the door in order to get a seat, just as people stand
patiently for hours at the pit-door of a theatre. Among this audience
there was one young sergeant who had shown a singularly keen
interest in the lectures; he was one of the smartest and
cleanest-living men in the station, and had never been charged with
drunkenness in his life. At one of the lectures B.-P. was surprised to
find the young soldier absent, and he was still more surprised on the
following day to find that this irreproachable sergeant was up on a
charge of drunkenness. "What on earth made you go and get drunk?"
asked B.-P. "Well, sir," said the sergeant doggedly, "I was late
yesterday and couldn't get in to your lecture, so of course I had to
go and get drunk." He said this perfectly seriously, and there was a
very world of meaning in his argumentative "of course."

[Illustration: "_Viret in AEternum_"
Van der Weyde, Photographer, 182, Regent St., W.]

Baden-Powell was as assiduous in his attentions to his men as any
knight to his lady. He wooed them and won them. He did not win by
playing to the gallery, asking if they were quite comfortable in their
room, and giving them little coddling presents. He won as a man wins a
love that is worth winning, by treating the object of his devotion
with respect and perfect trust. His work at Malta, when he was acting
as Assistant Military Secretary to the Governor, secured for him the
affection of hundreds of soldiers and, I am glad to add, sailors too.
He was the life and soul of the place, indefatigable in getting up
sports and theatricals for the men, and building a permanent club for
their use, which effectually prevented the weaker men, or shall we say
the more generous hearted? from spending too much money in
public-houses. It was a sight to see the gymnasium, in which the
theatricals were held, during one of Baden-Powell's performances. The
vast floor of the building was crowded with soldiers packed as tightly
as sardines, and the rafters running from wall to wall were all
bestridden by sailors as happy and as comfortable there as the
Governor and his party sitting in the front row in their splendid
chairs from the palace. And when B.-P. appeared in the wings a shout
such as might have brought down the walls of Jericho shook the great
building, and soldier and sailor vied with each other to s