He had a mania for disguising himself.

He had once travelled five hundred miles under the name of Prince Gotoffski, in a fur coat, a foreign accent, a false moustache and a special saloon carriage.

Indeed, only his wife knew all the secrets of Mitchell's wild early career of unpractical jokes, to some of which he still clung.

When he was younger he had carried it pretty far.

She encouraged him, yet at the same time she acted as ballast, and was always explaining his jokes; sometimes she was in danger of explaining him entirely away.