"'Mr. Squeers, I believe, sir?'
"'The same, sir,' said Mr. Squeers, with an assumption of extreme surprise.
"'The gentleman,' said the stranger, 'that advertised in the Times newspaper?'
"'Morning Post, Chronicle, Herald, and Advertiser, regarding the academy called Dotheboys Hall, at the delightful village of Dotheboys near Greta Bridge, in Yorkshire,' added Mr. Squeers. 'You come on business, sir, I see by my young friends....'
"'Hem!' said the other; 'twenty pounds per annum, I believe, Mr. Squeers?'
"'Guineas,' rejoined the schoolmaster, with a persuasive smile.
"'Pounds for two I think, Mr. Squeers,' said Mr. Snawley, solemnly.
"'I don't think it could be done, sir,' replied Mr. Squeers, as if he had never considered the proposition before. 'Let me see: four times five is twenty, double that, and deduct the —— Well, a pound either way shall not stand betwixt us. You must recommend me to your connection, sir, and make it up that way....'
"'And this,' resumed Snawley, 'has made me anxious to put them to some school a good distance off, where there are no holidays—none of those ill-judged comings home twice a-year that unsettles children's minds so—and where they may rough it a little; you comprehend?'"
That Dickens saw the following advertisements there is no doubt, for they were inserted every half-year throughout the reign, in the Times—