Dance of the Years by Margery Allingham Page B

great Baptist centre. Mr. Philby had a bent head which was not unlike a bean, and shrewd monkey eyes. He was a leading resident and a great local snob. He combined this with a strong leaning towards the new order, somehow making himself appear more well bred by disapproving so strongly of well-bred goings on. His wife said he was more refined than the Prince Regent, a remark which made old Galantry laugh so much when James repeated it that he never dared quote the lady again.
    James was not particularly clever at first, but he learned to write beautifully, and his penmanship became exquisite as he grew older.
    Joseph Philby was a practical man, and as his school was intended for the sons of professional men, not then so exclusive as they becamelater, he pleased the parents by instructing his pupils in sensible things like accounts, and the art of composing business letters, as well as enough Latin to decipher the footnotes in books of reminiscences. James enjoyed the actual business of writing, and also he liked the axioms he copied so carefully. He found the world so remarkably confusing and contradictory that he felt a few solid statements of fact were very comforting. Unfortunately some of the maxims in his copybook were not quite so reliable as others.
    â€œ
Good reputation is supported by honest actions
” he wrote truly enough six times in copper plate; and on the next page, “
Knowledge promotes and improves virtue
”—a far more dubious gospel. The one which fascinated him was the simple caution, “
Beware of imitating expensive persons,
” for he could not imagine why they in particular should be so specially sensitive.
    The business letters were an education in themselves. James wrote notes from imaginary tea merchants in Thames Street to non-existent grocers; he recommended fictitious young men as travellers to the fur trade, and arranged credits for mythical business men from the continent.
    The last letter in his book purported to come from a Mr. John Herapath, imagined by James to look remarkably like the sad young miller who sat three pews away from him in church. James was twelve and a half at the time, and was beginning to take life very seriously.
    Gentlemen
, he wrote,
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23rd instant, which should have been answered in course of post; but I was absent on a short journey expecting to collect sufficient to discharge your account
.
    I regret that I have not been successful, though you need not be under any misapprehension to your ultimate payment. You are aware I took this concern under manifest disadvantages, having to purchase a heavy and not very valuable stock for which prompt payment was made
.
    I am not fond of giving bills if they can possibly be avoided, but if it would be any satisfaction to you, you can draw upon me for the amount of one hundred and seventy-nine pounds twelve shillings and sixpence at thirty days date and may fully rely on the acceptance being met
.
    I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant, John Herapath
.
    This dignified and reassuring document was not entirely James’s own work, for he had help with the more formal phrases from Mr. Selsey, the usher, who seemed to think it slightly funny. But the main part of it was his own, and he was aware of its subtleties. He was proud of it, and looked for Mr. Philby’s approbation when he should read it out in class. To his chagrin, when the great moment came,the Headmaster made no comment at all, but instead glanced rather curiously at the stolid little boy with the hooded eyes, before he put the copybook down and took up someone else’s.
    The fact was that already James was beginning to betray a flair for business. This was not altogether extraordinary, for his mother’s people were by tradition absorbed by it. It was the bargaining, the give and take, the never-mentioned fight which went on all the time in business which delighted him. Mr. Philby