Froude came to the rescue.

In a gentle voice, and with the air of an anxious inquirer, he asked whether Dr.Blomfield had happened to acquaint the Commissioners with the nature and extent of his own emoluments.
Then, without pausing for a reply, he added, still gently, "Because it always used to be said that there were only two persons who knew what the Bishop of London's income was; himself and the devil." The remark may not have been a new one.

It was not offered as such, but it served its purpose, for the interrupted lecture was never resumed.
Froude's vast reading and his wide human experience enabled him to hold his own in any company, but he never paraded his knowledge, or lay in wait to trip people up.

Although the prospect of going out worried him, and his first impulse was to refuse an invitation, he enjoyed society when he was in it, being neither vain nor shy.

At Oxford he could not dine out.