Dr. Wortles School | Page 3

parents that he charged for each boy at the rate of two
hundred a-year for board, lodging, and tuition, and that anything
required for a boy's benefit or comfort beyond that ordinarily supplied
would be charged for as an extra at such price as Dr. Wortle himself
thought to be an equivalent. Now the popularity of his establishment no
doubt depended in a great degree on the sufficiency and comfort of the
good things of the world which he provided. The beer was of the best;
the boys were not made to eat fat; their taste in the selection of joints
was consulted. The morning coffee was excellent. The cook was a great
adept at cakes and puddings. The Doctor would not himself have been
satisfied unless everything had been plentiful, and everything of the
best. He would have hated a butcher who had attempted to seduce him
with meat beneath the usual price. But when he had supplied that which
was sufficient according to his own liberal ideas, he did not give more
without charging for it. Among his customers there had been a certain
Honourable Mr. Stantiloup, and,--which had been more important,--an
Honourable Mrs. Stantiloup. Mrs. Stantiloup was a lady who liked all
the best things which the world could supply, but hardly liked paying
the best price. Dr. Wortle's school was the best thing the world could
supply of that kind, but then the price was certainly the very best.
Young Stantiloup was only eleven, and as there were boys at Bowick
as old as seventeen,--for the school had not altogether maintained its
old character as being merely preparatory,--Mrs. Stantiloup had thought
that her boy should be admitted at a lower fee. The correspondence
which had ensued had been unpleasant. Then young Stantiloup had had
the influenza, and Mrs. Stantiloup had sent her own doctor. Champagne
had been ordered, and carriage exercise. Mr. Stantiloup had been forced
by his wife to refuse to pay sums demanded for these undoubted extras.
Ten shillings a-day for a drive for a little boy seemed to her a great
deal,--seemed so to Mrs. Stantiloup. Ought not the Doctor's wife to
have been proud to take out her little boy in her own carriage? And
then £2 10s. for champagne for the little boy! It was monstrous. Mr.
Stantiloup remonstrated. Dr. Wortle said that the little boy had better be
taken away and the bill paid at once. The little boy was taken away and

the money was offered, short of £5. The matter was instantly put into
the hands of the Doctor's lawyer, and a suit commenced. The Doctor, of
course, got his money, and then there followed an acrimonious
correspondence in the "Times" and other newspapers. Mrs. Stantiloup
did her best to ruin the school, and many very eloquent passages were
written not only by her or by her own special scribe, but by others who
took the matter up, to prove that two hundred a-year was a great deal
more than ought to be paid for the charge of a little boy during three
quarters of the year. But in the course of the next twelve months Dr.
Wortle was obliged to refuse admittance to a dozen eligible pupils
because he had not room for them.
No doubt he had suffered during these contests,--suffered, that is, in
mind. There had been moments in which it seemed that the victory
would be on the other side, that the forces congregated against him
were too many for him, and that not being able to bend he would have
to be broken; but in every case he had fought it out, and in every case
he had conquered. He was now a prosperous man, who had achieved
his own way, and had made all those connected with him feel that it
was better to like him and obey him, than to dislike him and fight with
him. His curates troubled him as little as possible with the grace of
godliness, and threw off as far as they could that zeal which is so dear
to the youthful mind but which so often seems to be weak and flabby to
their elders. His ushers or assistants in the school fell in with his views
implicitly, and were content to accept compensation in the shape of
personal civilities. It was much better to go shares with the Doctor in a
joke than to have to bear his hard words.
It is chiefly in reference to one of these ushers that our story has to be
told. But before we commence it, we must say a few more words as to
the Doctor and his family. Of his wife I have already spoken. She was
probably as happy a woman as you shall be likely to