The school in which Osmond Waymark taught was situated in "a
pleasant suburb of southern London" (Brixton, to wit); had its
"spacious playground and gymnasium" (the former a tolerable
back-yard, the latter a disused coach-house); and, as to educational
features, offered, at the choice of parents and guardians, either
the solid foundation desirable for those youths predestined to a
commercial career, or the more liberal training adapted to minds of
a professional bias. Anything further in the way of information was
to be obtained by applying to the headmaster, Dr. Tootle.

At present the number of resident pupils was something under forty.
The marvel was how so many could be accommodated in so small a
house. Two fair-sized bedrooms, and a garret in which the servants
could not be persuaded to sleep, served as dormitories for the whole
school; the younger children sleeping two together.

Waymark did not reside on the premises. For a stipulated sum of
thirteen pounds per quarter he taught daily from nine till five,
with an interval of an hour and a half at dinner-time, when he
walked home to Walcot Square for such meal as the state of his
exchequer would allow. Waymark occupied a prominent place in Dr.
Tootle's prospectus. As Osmond Waymark, B.A.,--the degree was a
_bona fide_ one, of London University,--he filled the
position of Senior Classical Master; anonymously he figured as a
teacher of drawing and lecturer on experimental chemistry. The other
two masters, resident, were Mr. O'Gree and Herr Egger; the former,
teacher of mathematics, assistant classical master, and professor of
gymnastics; the latter, teacher of foreign languages, of music, and