Dr. Wortles School | Page 6

additional reason for pardoning that American escapade. Circumstances
brought the two men together. There were friends at Oxford who knew
how anxious the Doctor was to carry out that plan of his in reference to
an usher, a curate, and a matron, and here were the very things
combined. Mr. Peacocke's scholarship and power of teaching were
acknowledged; he was already in orders; and it was declared that Mrs.
Peacocke was undoubtedly a lady. Many inquiries were made. Many
meetings took place. Many difficulties arose. But at last Mr. and Mrs.
Peacocke came to Bowick, and took up their abode in the school.
All the Doctor's requirements were not at once fulfilled. Mrs.
Peacocke's position was easily settled. Mrs. Peacocke, who seemed to
be a woman possessed of sterling sense and great activity, undertook

her duties without difficulty. But Mr. Peacocke would not at first
consent to act as curate in the parish. He did, however, after a time
perform a portion of the Sunday services. When he first came to
Bowick he had declared that he would undertake no clerical duty.
Education was his profession, and to that he meant to devote himself
exclusively. Nor for the six or eight months of his sojourn did he go
back from this; so that the Doctor may be said even still to have failed
in carrying out his purpose. But at last the new schoolmaster appeared
in the pulpit of the parish church and preached a sermon.
All that had passed in private conference between the Doctor and his
assistant on the subject need not here be related. Mr. Peacocke's
aversion to do more than attend regularly at the church services as one
of the parishioners had been very strong. The Doctor's anxiety to
overcome his assistant's reasoning had also been strong. There had no
doubt been much said between them. Mr. Peacocke had been true to his
principles, whatever those principles were, in regard to his appointment
as a curate,--but it came to pass that he for some months preached
regularly every Sunday in the parish church, to the full satisfaction of
the parishioners. For this he had accepted no payment, much to the
Doctor's dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, it was certainly the case that they
who served the Doctor gratuitously never came by the worse of the
bargain.
Mr. Peacocke was a small wiry man, anything but robust in appearance,
but still capable of great bodily exertion. He was a great walker. Labour
in the school never seemed to fatigue him. The addition of a sermon to
preach every week seemed to make no difference to his energies in the
school. He was a constant reader, and could pass from one kind of
mental work to another without fatigue. The Doctor was a noted
scholar, but it soon became manifest to the Doctor himself, and to the
boys, that Mr. Peacocke was much deeper in scholarship than the
Doctor. Though he was a poor man, his own small classical library was
supposed to be a repository of all that was known about Latin and
Greek. In fact, Mr. Peacocke grew to be a marvel; but of all the marvels
about him, the thing most marvellous was the entire faith which the
Doctor placed in him. Certain changes even were made in the

old-established "curriculum" of tuition,--and were made, as all the boys
supposed, by the advice of Mr. Peacocke. Mr. Peacocke was treated
with a personal respect which almost seemed to imply that the two men
were equal. This was supposed by the boys to come from the fact that
both the Doctor and the assistant had been Fellows of their colleges at
Oxford; but the parsons and other gentry around could see that there
was more in it than that. Mr. Peacocke had some power about him
which was potent over the Doctor's spirit.
Mrs. Peacocke, in her line, succeeded almost as well. She was a woman
something over thirty years of age when she first came to Bowick, in
the very pride and bloom of woman's beauty. Her complexion was dark
and brown,--so much so, that it was impossible to describe her colour
generally by any other word. But no clearer skin was ever given to a
woman. Her eyes were brown, and her eye-brows black, and perfectly
regular. Her hair was dark and very glossy, and always dressed as
simply as the nature of a woman's head will allow. Her features were
regular, but with a great show of strength. She was tall for a woman,
but without any of that look of length under which female altitude
sometimes suffers. She was strong and well made, and apparently equal
to any labour to which her position might subject her. When she had
been at Bowick about three months, a boy's