I gave my card, was ushered in, and told to take a chair;
I saw a portly gentleman—it might be the Lord Mayor;
I told him of these vulgar boys, and plainly put my case.
He laughed, that portly gentleman—he laughed right in my face.
“We do not care for vulgar boys,” he said. “We use our powers
To shut up private schools, and get their pupils into ours.
We go in for ‘accomplishments,’ for music, and—who knows?—
Some day a School Board pupil may an opera compose!”
I said, “I thought it might be so (for rules true Genius spurns),