“It is useless to deny, of course,” my father had said, “that we have been seriously disappointed in your school, or to suggest that either my son or myself will be able to look back upon it with approval. Nor can I profess to be wholly convinced as to the necessity that you have so often explained to me of promoting your pupils from class to class according to the results of an examination. At the same time I am open-minded enough to recognise that this method has the sanction of custom, and to forbear from arraigning you for the consequently meagre position that my son still occupies in your establishment. Refusing to accept the standard, I can afford to ignore its results. But of this, Mr. Lorton, I am completely confident—that if the index had been a moral or religious one, my boy Augustus would have been second to none.”
Here my father paused for a moment to expectorate some phlegm, and it was then that Mr. Lorton used the words I have quoted.
“A good boy,” he said, as his wife entered the room, “a very, very good boy, or shall we say, now that he has begun to shave, an extremely admirable young man.”
A heavily-constructed woman of immense height, with prominent cheek-bones and a bovine chin, it was generally understood that Mr. Lorton had selected her chiefly on account of her income. And neither my father nor myself had ever been able to detect in her the least sign of intelligence. Happily her intrusion, however, was but momentary, and my father was able once more to proceed.
“I am obliged to you for your tribute,” he said, “and if, as you must surely admit, my son’s influence in your school has been inestimable, you will the more readily agree with me in adopting a reciprocal attitude towards the important question of his future employment.”
As we both observed, Mr. Lorton’s expression changed a little. But his voice retained its professional amiability.
“Oh, precisely,” he said, “precisely, although you must understand, of course, that my influence is strictly limited.”
“Nevertheless,” said my father, “I am depending on its exertion to the utmost boundary of its capacity. And I should be glad to learn what openings you have in view for one to whom so admittedly you are a debtor.”
At this point Mrs. Lorton returned and took up a position on her husband’s left flank. Mr. Lorton glanced at her before replying.
“Well, of course,” he said, “the problem is a somewhat difficult one.”