“Very likely it was wise, and the best thing in the end. But what has brought you to it?”
“I hope not as the resource of a shelved schoolmaster.”
“Oh, no; you are not shelved. See how you have improved the school. Look at the numbers.”
“That is no test of my real influence over the boys. I teach them, I keep them in external order, but I do not get into them. The religious life is at a low ebb.”
“No wonder, with that vicar; but you have done your best.”
“Even if my attempts are a layman’s best, they always get quenched by the cold water of the Rigby element. It is hard for boys to feel the reality of what is treated with such business-like indifference, and set forth so feebly, not to say absurdly.”
“I know. It is a terrible disadvantage.”
“Listening to Rigby, has, I must say, done a good deal to bring about my present intention.”
“By force of contradiction.”
“If that means of longing to be in his place and put the thing as it ought to be put.”