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But Mr. Perkins devised an elaborate scheme by which he
might obtain sufficient space to make the school double its
present size. He wanted to attract boys from London. He
thought it would be good for them to be thrown in con-
tact with the Kentish lads, and it would sharpen the country
wits of these.
‘It’s against all our traditions,’ said Sighs, when Mr. Per-
kins made the suggestion to him. ‘We’ve rather gone out of
our way to avoid the contamination of boys from London.’
‘Oh, what nonsense!’ said Mr. Perkins.
No one had ever told the form-master before that he
talked nonsense, and he was meditating an acid reply, in
which perhaps he might insert a veiled reference to hosiery,
when Mr. Perkins in his impetuous way attacked him out-
rageously.
‘That house in the precincts—if you’d only marry I’d get
the Chapter to put another couple of stories on, and we’d
make dormitories and studies, and your wife could help
you.’
The elderly clergyman gasped. Why should he marry?
He was fifty-seven, a man couldn’t marry at fifty-seven. He
couldn’t start looking after a house at his time of life. He
didn’t want to marry. If the choice lay between that and the
country living he would much sooner resign. All he wanted
now was peace and quietness.
‘I’m not thinking of marrying,’ he said.
Mr. Perkins looked at him with his dark, bright eyes, and
if there was a twinkle in them poor Sighs never saw it.
‘What a pity! Couldn’t you marry to oblige me? It would

Of Human Bondage