Fourth Forms, and their ages ranged from twelve to fifteen; Irving sat
at a desk on the platform and surveyed them while they worked, or
tiptoed down the aisle in response to an appeal from some uplifted hand.

He had come so recently from examination-rooms where he had been one of
the pupils that this experience exhilarated him; it conferred upon him
an authority that he enjoyed. He liked to be addressed by these
nice-mannered young boys as “sir,” and to be recognized by them so
unquestioningly as a person to whom deference must be shown. Altogether
this first day with the new boys inspired him with confidence, and at
the end of it he attacked the pile of examination books
enthusiastically.

Mr. Barclay aided him in that task; Mr. Barclay was a young master also,
comparatively, though he had had several years’ experience. Irving was
attracted to him at once, and was grateful for the way in which he made
suggestions when there was some uncertainty as to how a boy should be
graded.

Irving liked, too, the genial chuckle which preceded an invitation to
inspect some candidate’s egregious blunder; Irving would read and smile
quietly, unaware that Barclay was watching him and wondering how
appreciative he might be of the ludicrous.

Two nights Irving spent all alone in the Sixth Form dormitory; it amused
him to walk up and down the corridors with the list of those to whom
rooms there had been assigned. “Collingwood, Westby, Scarborough,
Morrill, Anderson, Baldersnaith, Hill”—some of them had occupied these
rooms as Fifth Formers, and Irving had asked Mr. Barclay about them.