The usher bowed with a grace that had been acquired by several years study in deportment in the Board School, and replied that he fancied that most of the applicants were too highly educated for the coveted position.
"Too highly educated!" exclaimed the representative of municipal progress. "It is impossible to be too highly educated! You don't know what you're talking about!"
"Pardon me, Sir," returned the Usher, with another graceful inclination of the head, "but would not 'imperfectly acquainted with the subject of your discourse' be more polished? But, with your permission, I will obey you."
And then the official returned to usher in an aged man wearing spectacles. The veteran immediately fell upon his knees and began to implore the Committee to appoint him to the vacant post.
"I can assure you, Gentlemen, that, thanks to the School Board, I am a first-rate Latin and Greek scholar. I am intimately acquainted with the Hebrew language, and have the greatest possible respect for the Union Jack. I know all that can be known about mathematics, and can play several musical instruments. I am also an accomplished waltzer; I know the use of the globes, and can play the overture to Zampa on the musical-glasses. I know the works of Shakspeare backwards, and——"
"Stop, stop!" interrupted the Chairman. "You may do all this, and more; but have you any knowledge of the modus operandi of the labour required of you?"
"Alas, no!" returned the applicant; "but if a man of education——"
"Remove him, Usher!" cried the Chairman; and the veteran was removed in tears.
A second, a third, and a fourth made their appearance, and disappeared, and none of them would do. They were all singularly accomplished.
At length a rough man, who had been lounging down the street, walked into the Council-chamber.