r write at once and fix a date--say next Thursday.
You needn't say anything about my father's death. Just make it a formal
letter, and sign your own name; you may add 'Clerk of the School Board.'"

"Can I rightly do that, sir?" Mr. Benny hesitated.

"Why not? You _are_ the clerk, aren't you? As clerk, you answer her
simply in the way of business. There's no need to call a meeting of the
Board over such a trifle; though, if you wish, I'll explain it personally
to the Managers. We may have a dozen cases like this before we get into
working order--small odds and ends which require, nevertheless, to be
dealt with promptly. We must do what's best, and risk small
irregularities."

Mr. Benny, not quite convinced, fell to composing his letter.
Mr. Sam leaned back in his chair and mused, tapping his long teeth with a
paper-knife. He wondered what kind of a woman this Hester Marvin might
be, and of what religious 'persuasion.' In a week or two he would succeed
to his father's place on the Board. There would be no opposition, and it
seemed to him natural and right that there should be none. Was he not by
far the richest man in the parish? Samuel Rosewarne studied his Bible
devoutly; but he did not seek it for anything which might stand in the way
of his own will or his private advantage. When he came upon a text
condemning riches, for instance, or definitely bidding him to forgive a
debtor, he told himself that Christ was speaking figuratively, or was, at
any rate, not to be taken literally, and with that he passed on to
something more comfortable. He did not, of course, really believe this,
but he had to tell himself so; for otherwise he would have to alter his
whole way of life, or confess himself an irreligious man. But he was, on
the contrary, a highly religious man, and he had no disposition to alter
his life.

He hated the Church of England, too, because he perceived it to be full of
abuses; and he supposed that the best way to counteract these abuses was
to put a spoke in the Church's wheel wherever and whenever he could.
In this he but copied the adversary--Parson Endicott, for example--who
hated Dissent, perceiving that it rested on self-assertiveness,
encouraging unlearned men to be opinionative in error. Perceiving this,
Parson Endicott supposed himself to be combating error by snatching at
every advantage, great or small, which exalted the supremacy of his Church
and left Dissent the worse in any bar