Mr Paton's form contributed very much to the quota of general
noise. Although Henderson had chaffed Daubeny on his virtuous
stillness, yet all the boys sat very nearly as quiet as Dubbs himself
during school hours. Even Henderson and such mercurial spirits were
awed into silence and sobriety. You would hardly have known that in
that quarter of the room there _was_ a form at all. Quicksilver itself
would have lost its volatility under Mr Paton's manipulation.

It was hard at first sight to say why this was. Certainly Mr Paton set
many punishments, but so did other masters, who had not half his
success. The secret was that Mr Paton was something of a _routinier_,
and that was the word which, if he had known it, Kenrick would have used
to describe him. If he set an imposition, the imposition must be done,
and must be done at a certain time, without appeal, and _causa indicta_.
Mr Paton was as deaf as Pluto to all excuses, and as inexorable as
Rhadamanthus in his retributive dispensations. Neither Orpheus nor
Amphion would have moved him. Orpheus might have made all the desks and
forms dance round as they listened to his song, but he could never have
got Mr Paton to let off fifty lines; and Amphion would have been
equally unsuccessful even if the walls of the court had come as
petitioners in obedience to his strains. As for remitting a lesson, Mr
Paton would not have done it if Saint Cecilia had offered him the whole
wreath of red and white roses which the admiring angels twined in her
golden hair.

Mr Paton's rule was not the leaden rule of Lesbos [Aristophanes, Nic.
Eth., v. 14.]; it could not be bent to suit the diversities of
individual character, but was a rule iron and inflexible, which applied
equally to all. His measure was that of Procrustes; the cleverest boys
could not stretch themselves beyond it, the dullest were mechanically
pulled into its dimensions. Hence some fared hardly under it; yet let
me hasten to say that, on the whole, with the great number of average
boys, it was a success. The discipline which he established was
perfect, and though many boys winced under it at the time, it was
valuable to all of them, especially to those of an idle or sluggish
tendency; and as it was rigid just as well as severe, they often learned
to look back upon it with gratitude and respect.

After a time the form went up to say a lesson. Each boy was put on in
turn. When it came to Walter's turn Mr Paton fir