had now sent him to school, the tutor was at liberty.

In these circumstances, I felt that he was not quite a stranger, and
was prepared to receive him favourably.

Indeed, when his arrival was close at hand, Nurse Bundle and I took an
hospitable pleasure in looking over the arrangements of his room, and
planning little details for his comfort.

He came at last, and my father was able to announce to Aunt Maria (who
had never approved of what she called "Mr. Andrewes' desultory style
of teaching") that my education was now placed in the hands of a
resident tutor.

CHAPTER XIX

THE TUTOR--THE PARISH--A NEW CONTRIBUTOR TO THE ALMS-BOX

Mr. Clerke was a small, slight, fair man. He was short-sighted, which
caused him to carry a round piece of glass about the size of a penny
in his waistcoat pocket, and from time to time to stick this into his
eye, where he held it in a very ingenious, but, as it seemed to me,
dangerous fashion.

It took me quite a fortnight to get used to that eye-glass. It was
like a policeman's bull's-eye lantern. I never knew when it might be
turned on me. Then the glass had no rim, the edges looked quite sharp,
and the reckless way in which the tutor held it squeezed between his
cheek and eyebrow was a thing to be at once feared and admired.

I was sitting over my Delectus one morning, unwillingly working at a
page which had been set as a punishment for some offence, with my
hands buried in my pockets, fumbling with halfpence and other
treasures there concealed, when, seeing my tutor stick his glass into
his eye as he went to the bookcase, I pulled out a halfpenny to try if
I could hold it between cheek and brow, as he held his glass. After
many failures, I had just triumphantly succeeded when he caught sight
of my reflection in a mirror, and seeing the halfpenny in my eye, my
chin in air, and my face puckered up with what must have been a
comical travesty of his own appearance, he concluded that I was
mimicking him, and defying his authority, and coming quickly up to me
he gave me a sharp box on the ear.

In the explanation which followed, he was candid enough to apologize
handsomely for having "lost his temper," as he said; and having
remitted my task as an atonement, took me out fishing with him.

We got on very well together. At first I think my old-fashioned ways
puzzled him, and he was also disconcerted by the questions which I
asked when we were out together. Perhaps he unders