of tribulation the coming of inspection day, when
that awful being, Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools for such and such a
district, is expected down to make his report and add to or deduct so
many pounds sterling from the teacher's pay?

Of course we do these things better now; but there have been cases where
the appointment of school inspector has been given to a gentleman who
owed his elevation, not to the fact that he was a thorough scholar, a
man who had always taken great interest in the education of the masses,
a student of school management, a man of quick intellect apt to seize
upon the latent points, ready to suggest, to qualify, and help the
master or mistress upon whose teaching for the past year he was about to
report, gifted with the brain-power that would enable him to appreciate
the difficulties of the task, and ready to see that the boys and girls
of Pudley Claypole really had not the quickness of the _gamins_ and
_gamines_ of Little Sharp Street, Whitechapel Road--but to the accident
of his having friends, if not at Court, at all events with some high
official--his sisters, his cousins, or his aunts--then in power.

Now, no one could have found fault with the gentlemanly demeanour of Mr
Slingsby Barracombe. Miss Lambent said it was a pleasure to have him at
the vicarage, and quite made a break in the dulness of their life, for
he discoursed of society in town, his high connections, the state of the
country; and he could sip tea and talk family matters with the vicarage
ladies like a woman. He was a man of excellent presence: his hair very
slightly touched with grey, and in that stage when, as he parted it down
the middle, you could not decidedly have said whether it was a very
broad parting or a suggestion of growing bald.

Sometimes your school inspector is a reverend M.A. Mr Slingsby
Barracombe was not, but he dressed as much like a clergyman as he could,
and his clothes were all made by one of the first clerical tailors in
town.

Mr Barracombe's uncle's wife's sister had married a gentleman whose
brother was in the Ministry; and, somehow, Mr Slingsby Barracombe was
named as likely to obtain the appointment of Inspector of Schools, did
obtain it and went on afterwards merrily inspecting and reporting for
his district after a fashion for which he ought to have had a patent,
since it was essentially his own.

"You will endeavour to have as large an attendance as you can. Miss
Thorne," said the