nt, much to the Doctor's
dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, it was certainly the case that they who
served the Doctor gratuitously never came by the worse of the bargain.

Mr. Peacocke was a small wiry man, anything but robust in appearance, but
still capable of great bodily exertion. He was a great walker. Labour in
the school never seemed to fatigue him. The addition of a sermon to
preach every week seemed to make no difference to his energies in the
school. He was a constant reader, and could pass from one kind of mental
work to another without fatigue. The Doctor was a noted scholar, but it
soon became manifest to the Doctor himself, and to the boys, that Mr.
Peacocke was much deeper in scholarship than the Doctor. Though he was a
poor man, his own small classical library was supposed to be a repository
of all that was known about Latin and Greek. In fact, Mr. Peacocke grew
to be a marvel; but of all the marvels about him, the thing most
marvellous was the entire faith which the Doctor placed in him. Certain
changes even were made in the old-established "curriculum" of
tuition,--and were made, as all the boys supposed, by the advice of Mr.
Peacocke. Mr. Peacocke was treated with a personal respect which almost
seemed to imply that the two men were equal. This was supposed by the
boys to come from the fact that both the Doctor and the assistant had been
Fellows of their colleges at Oxford; but the parsons and other gentry
around could see that there was more in it than that. Mr. Peacocke had
some power about him which was potent over the Doctor's spirit.

Mrs. Peacocke, in her line, succeeded almost as well. She was a woman
something over thirty years of age when she first came to Bowick, in the
very pride and bloom of woman's beauty. Her complexion was dark and
brown,--so much so, that it was impossible to describe her colour
generally by any other word. But no clearer skin was ever given to a
woman. Her eyes were brown, and her eye-brows black, and perfectly
regular. Her hair was dark and very glossy, and always dressed as simply
as the nature of a woman's head will allow. Her features were regular,
but with a great show of strength. She was tall for a woman, but without
any of that look of length under which female altitude sometimes suffers.
She was strong and well made, and apparently equal to any labour to which
her position might subject her. When she had been at Bowick about three
months, a bo