ansactions occasionally
carried out and these very rarely, constituting something of an event
(and an event greatly deprecated by the Reverend Sebastian Fortune), the
tactless misadventure of some pedagogue or student on excursion to the
sights of Tidborough.

No one, in any case, committed twice the indiscretion of purchasing a
single volume for cash. The book-lined study was in the care of a Mr.
Tombs, a gentleman who combined the appearance of a mute at a funeral
with the aloof and mysterious manner of a man waiting for his wife in a
ladies' underwear department, and the peculiar faculty of making the
haphazard visitor feel that he had strayed into a ladies' underwear shop
also. "Have you an account with us, sir?" Mr. Tombs would inquire; and
on being told "No" would look guiltily all around (as it were at
partially undressed ladies) and whisper, "Except to the masters at the
School, sir, who all have accounts, we are not supposed to sell single
volumes. It is against our rule, sir."

And no one, once escaped, made Mr. Tombs break the rule on a second
occasion.

III

Business--on credit only--was conducted on the first floor whereon were
apartmented the three principals--the Reverend Sebastian Fortune, Mr.
Twyning and Sabre. There was no longer an East in the firm. From the
central, vestry-like showroom a broad and shallow stairway led to a
half-landing, containing the clerks' office, and thence to the spacious
apartment of Mr. Fortune with which, by doors at either end,
communicated the offices of Sabre and of Mr. Twyning. Many stately and
eminent persons--and no ill-to-do or doubtful persons--passed up and
down this stairway on visits to the principals. It was not used by the
clerks, the half-landing communicating with the outer world by the
clerks' stairs leading to the clerks' entrance at the back of the
building, and with the showrooms by the clerks' stairs leading at one
end to the book-lined study and at the other to the model classroom. The
clerks' office, by the taking down of original walls, ran the whole
length of the building, and accommodated not only the clerks, but the
designing room, the checking room and the dispatch room. This
arrangement was highly inconvenient to the performers of the various
duties thus carried on, but was essential to the more rapid execution of
Mr. Fortune's habit of "keeping an eye" on everything. This habit of the
Reverend Sebastian Fortune was roundly detested by all