ed all day in happy turns of speech, said the best thing of
this band. He said it was _sui generis_.

He was magnificent throughout. I am not going to describe the
Regatta, for sterner events hurry my pen forward. So let me only say
that the weather completely justified his cheery optimism; that the
breeze, though slight, held throughout the sailing events, and then
dropped, leaving the bay glassy as a lake for the rowers; that sports
ashore--three-legged races, egg-and-spoon races, sack races, races
for young men, races for old women, donkey races, a tug-of-war, a
greasy pole, a miller-and-sweep combat--filled the afternoon until
tea-time; that at tea the tables groaned with piles of saffron cake
and cream 'splitters'; and that when the company had, in Homeric
phrase--the only fit one for such a tea--put aside from them the
desire of meat and drink, Sir Felix stood up and made a speech.

'It was an admirable speech too. It began with 'My dear friends,'
and the exordium struck at once that paternal note which makes him,
with all his foibles, so lovable. 'They' must excuse him if he now
took his departure; for he had arrived at an age to feel the length
of a long day--even of a happy summer's day such as this had been.
To be innocently happy--that had used to be the boast of England, of
"Merry England "; and he had ever prized happy living faces in
Kirris-vean above the ancestral portraits--not all happy, if one
might judge from their expressions--hanging on his walls at home.'
(Prolonged applause greeted this; and deservedly, for he spoke no
more than he meant.) He became reminiscential, and singling out a
school-child here and there, discoursed of their grandparents, even
of their great-grandparents; recalled himself to pay a series of
graceful tributes to all who had contributed to make the day a
success; and wound up by regretting that he could not stay for the
fireworks.

Dear honest Sir Felix! I can see him now, bareheaded, his white
hairs lightly fluttered by the evening breeze that fluttered also the
flags above Mr Bates's booth immediately in his rear; the sunset
light on his broad immaculate waistcoat; the long tea-tables, with
their rows of faces all turned deferentially towards him; the shadows
slanting from the trees; the still expanse of the bay, and far across
the bay a bank of clouds softly, imperceptibly marshalling.

We cheered him to the echo, of course. At his invitation I walked
some way