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Jobbles, with all the encouragement which his voice could give, 'never mind. Now, suppose that a be a milestone; b a turnpike-gate , and so on. But Mr. Jobbles, in spite of his smiles, so awed the hearts of some of his candidates, that two of them retired at the end of the second day.
Jobbles made his last little speech at the Board, and retired to his house in the Dean's yard, Alaric felt tolerably certain that he himself would be invited to fill the vacant place. And he was so invited. 'That is L1,200 a year, at any rate, said he to himself, as with many words of submissive gratitude he thanked his patron for the nomination. 'That is L1,200 a year. So far, so good.
Not for this had he devoted his time, his energy, and the best powers of his mind to the office of which he was at present the chief; not for this had he taken by the hand a young clerk, and brought him forward, and pushed him up, and seated him in high places. To have kept Mr. Jobbles would have been better than this; he, at any rate, would not have aspired to parliamentary honours.
It is a dreadful task that of answering examination papers only to be exceeded in dreadfulness by the horrors of Mr. Jobbles' viva voce torments. A man has before him a string of questions, and he looks painfully down them, from question to question, searching for some allusion to that special knowledge which he has within him. He too often finds that no such allusion is made.
Alaric, of course, knew well what had been going on at the Board. He had been Sir Gregory's confidential man all through; had worked out cases for him, furnished him with arguments, backed his views, and had assisted him, whenever such a course had been necessary, in holding Mr. Jobbles' head under the pump.
He should have been allowed to try his hand upon five hundred instead of five. His step was so rapid and his hand and arm moved so dexterously, that no conceivable number would have been too many for him. But, even with five, he showed at once that the right man was in the right place. Mr. Jobbles was created for the conducting of examinations.
It appears that the Jobbles of the occasion has exactly known the blank spots of his mind and fitted them all.
Could not he, Jobbles, get through 5,000 viva voces in every five hours that is, with due assistance? and would not 55,000 printed papers, containing 555,000 questions, be getting themselves answered at the same time, with more or less precision? So now Mr. Jobbles was about to try his huge plan by a small commencement.
This gentleman was a worthy clergyman from Cambridge, one Mr. Jobbles by name. Mr. Jobbles had for many years been examining undergraduates for little goes and great goes, and had passed his life in putting posing questions, in detecting ignorance by viva voce scrutiny, and eliciting learning by printed papers.
Precis to dine with him and take part of a bottle of claret at half-past six. But, nevertheless, Mr. Precis looked very blank. 'I am not asking the distance, you know, said Mr. Jobbles, smiling sweeter than ever; 'I am only asking how you would compute it. But still Mr. Precis looked exceedingly blank. 'Never mind, said Mr.
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