sfully preparing young gentlemen with whom no other private tutor
could do anything, and he had established the scale of his prices
accordingly. It is true that he had sacrificed other things for the sake
of imparting tuition, and more than once he had hesitated and asked
himself whether he should go on. Indeed, when he graduated, it was
thought that he would soon make himself remarkable by the publication of
some scholarly work; it was foretold that he might become a famous
preacher; it was asserted that he was a general favourite with the
Fellows of Trinity and would get a proportionately fat living--but he had
committed the unpardonable sin of allowing his chances of fortune to slip
from him. He had given up his fellowship, had married and had accepted an
insignificant country living. He asked nothing, and he got nothing. He
never attracted the notice of his bishop by doing anything extraordinary,
nor the notice of the public by appearing in print. He baptized, married
and buried the people of Billingsfield, Essex, and he took private
pupils. He wrote a sermon once a fortnight, and revised old ones for the
other three occasions out of four. His sermons were good in their way,
but were intended for simple folk and did no justice to the powers he had
certainly possessed in his youth. Indeed, as years went on, the dry
routine of his life produced its inevitable effect upon his mind, and the
productions of Mr. Ambrose grew to be exceedingly commonplace; and the
more commonplace he became, the more he regretted having done so little
with the faculties he enjoyed, and the more weary he became of the daily
task of galvanising the dull minds of his pupils into a spasmodic
activity, just sufficient to leap the ditch that separates the schoolboy
from the undergraduate. He had not only educated his children and seen
them provided for in the world; he had also saved a little money, and he
had insured his life for five hundred pounds. There was no longer any
positive necessity for continuing to teach, as there had been thirty
years ago, when he first married.

So much for the circumstances of the Reverend Augustin Ambrose.
Personally he was a man of good presence, five feet ten inches in height,
active and strong, of a ruddy complexion with smooth, thick grey hair and
a plentiful grey beard. He shaved his upper lip however, greatly to the
detriment of his appearance, for the said upper lip was very long and the
absence of the hirs