inner-room,
said, "Doubleday, bring the two new office-boys into my room."

If I had heard just the sentence of death pronounced on me I could
hardly have been more horrified. My face and hand were like the face
and hand of a negro, my collar and shirt were spotted and smeared all
over with ink, and even my light hair was decorated with black patches.
And in this guise I was to make my first appearance before my masters!
Jack Smith's expression of amazement and horror as he caught sight of me
only intensified my own distress, and Doubleday's stern "Now you're in
for it!" sounded hopelessly prophetic.

I could do nothing. To wipe my face with my clean hand, with the tail
of my jacket, with my shirt-sleeve, could do no good. No; I was in for
it and must meet my doom!

But I determined to make one expiring effort to escape it.

"Please, sir," I cried, as we came to the door and before we entered,
"I'm very sorry, but my face is all over ink. May I wash it before I
come in?"

I was vaguely conscious of the titters of the clerks behind me, of the
angry grip of Doubleday on one side of me, and of Smith's solemn and
horrified face on the other, and the next moment I was standing with my
friend in front of Mr Barnacle's awful desk.

He regarded me sternly for a moment or two, during which I suffered
indescribable anguish of mind.

"What is the meaning of this?" said he. "I don't understand it."

"Oh, please, sir," cried I, almost beseechingly, "I'm so sorry. I was
wiping up some ink, and got some on my face. I couldn't help."

Mr Barnacle looked angry and impatient.

"This is no place for nonsense," said he.

"Really I couldn't help," I pleaded.

There must have been some traces of earnestness visible, I fancy, on my
inky face, for I saw Mr Barnacle look at me curiously as I spoke, while
there was the faintest perceptible twitch at the corners of his lips.

"Go and wash at once," he said, sternly.

I fled from his presence as if I had been a leper, and amid the
merriment of my fellow-clerks sought the sink at the other end of the
office and washed there as I had never washed before.

After much exertion, my countenance resumed something like its natural
complexion, and the white skin faintly dawned once more on my fingers.
My collar and shirt-front were beyond cleaning, but at the end of my
ablutions I was, at any rate, rather more presentable than I had been.

Then I returned refreshed in body and mi