masters who so
nobly endeavour to inculcate living ideas of purity and Christianity. I
am only too well aware when I look round this chapel to-night--this
chapel made sacred by so many memories--that nearly every word of that
accusation is false. Yet perhaps there are times--in our mirth, shall we
say?--when we are engaged in sport, or genial merriment, when we are
inclined to treat sacred matters not with quite that reverence that we
ought. Perhaps----"

Rogers prosed on, epithet followed epithet, egotism and arrogance vied
with one another for predominance. The school lolled back in the oak
seats and dreamt of house matches, rags, impositions, impending rows. At
last the Chief gave out the final hymn. Into the cloisters the school
poured out, hustling, shouting, a stream of shadows. Contentedly Rogers
went back to his house, ate a large meal, and addressed a little homily
to the confirmation candidates in his house on the virtues of sincerity.

"What a pitiable state of mind old 'Bogus' must be in," sighed Tester,
when the scurry of feet along the passage had died down kind of quiet,
and he and Gordon were sitting in front of a typically huge School House
fire.

"I don't think I should call it a mind at all," muttered Gordon, who was
furious about the whole affair. "The man's an utter fool. When he is
told the truth he won't believe it, but stands there in the pulpit
rambling on, airing his rotten opinions. Good God, and that's the sort
of man who is supposed to be moulding the coming generation. Oh, it's
sickening."

"Well, my good boy, what more can you expect? The really brilliant men
don't take up schoolmastering; it is the worst paid profession there is.
Look at it, a man with a double-first at Oxford comes down to a place
like Fernhurst and sweats his guts out day and night for two hundred
pounds a year. Of course, the big men try for better things. Rogers is
just the sort of fool who would be a schoolmaster. He has got no brain,
no intellect, he loves jawing, and nothing could be more suitable for
him than the Third Form, the pulpit, and a commission in the O.T.C. But
perhaps he may have a few merits. I have not found any yet."

"Nor I. But, you know, some good men take up schoolmastering."

"Oh, of course they do. There is the Chief, for instance, a brilliant
scholar and _the_ authority on Coleridge. But he is an exception; and
besides, he did not stop an assistant master long; he got a
headmastership