, I should compute the child Josiah Jago's attendances during
the last week of July at _nil_, or thereabouts. You will understand,
Dr Mant, that at the very close of the school year many parents take
advantage, reasoning that they will not be prosecuted during the
holidays. I may say that I have drawn the attention of the School
Attendance Committee to this--er--propensity on the part of parents,
and have asked them to grapple with it: but, so far, without result."

"Hallelujah!" exclaimed Dr Mant. "Then there's hope we may isolate
the little devil. . . . Well, so far so good. But that wasn't my
only reason for calling. I have to give an ambulance lecture in your
schoolroom to-morrow evening: and I came to ask if you had a wall-map
or chart of the human body to help me along. Otherwise I shall have
to lug over a lot of medical books with plates and pass 'em around:
and the plates are mixed up with others. . . . Well, you understand,
they're not everybody's picture-gallery. That's to say, you can't
pass a lot of books around and say 'Don't turn the page, or maybe
you'll get more than you bargain for. '"

Mr Rounsell had stiffened visibly. "I will not conceal from you, Dr
Mant, that the matter on which you now approach me is--er--the
subject on which I--er--privately anticipated that you had called.
I have no _official_ knowledge of your lecturing here to-morrow--
instructive as I am sure it will be. The Managers have not consulted
me; they have not even troubled to give me official notice. But come
inside, sir."

Doctor Mant followed, to a little parlour lined with books; wherein
the little man turned on him, white with rage.

"I have heard, by a side wind," he foamed, "that a meeting was held,
two days ago, up at the Vicarage, when it was decided that you should
hold lectures in this school--_my_ school. I wasn't asked to attend.
. . . And of course you will jump to the conclusion that I am
over-sensitive, huffed for my own sake. It isn't that! . . . I _am_
huffed--maddened--if you will--for the sake of my calling.
For twenty years, Dr Mant, I have opened this school every morning
with prayer, dismissed it with prayer every evening, and between
times laboured to preach many things that all in the end come to one
thing--the idea of a poor English schoolmaster. All over the country
other poor schoolmasters have been spending their lives teaching in
just the same way their notion of England--what she is,