The stranger introduced himself as
Harold Biffen, an author in a small way, and a teacher whenever
he could get pupils; an abusive review had interested him in
Reardon's novels, but as yet he knew nothing of them but the
names.
Their tastes were found to be in many respects sympathetic, and
after returning to London they saw each other frequently. Biffen
was always in dire poverty, and lived in the oddest places; he
had seen harder trials than even Reardon himself. The teaching by
which he partly lived was of a kind quite unknown to the
respectable tutorial world. In these days of examinations,
numbers of men in a poor position--clerks chiefly--conceive a
hope that by 'passing' this, that, or the other formal test they
may open for themselves a new career. Not a few such persons
nourish preposterous ambitions; there are warehouse clerks
privately preparing (without any means or prospect of them) for a
call to the Bar, drapers' assistants who 'go in' for the
preliminary examination of the College of Surgeons, and untaught
men innumerable who desire to procure enough show of education to
be eligible for a curacy.
Pages:
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272