'We have considered your proposition, and we don't approve of

'Not at all,' said the gentleman in the white waistcoat.

'Decidedly not,' added the other members.

As Mr. Gamfield did happen to labour under the slight imputation

of having bruised three or four boys to death already, it

occurred to him that the board had, perhaps, in some

unaccountable freak, taken it into their heads that this

extraneous circumstance ought to influence their proceedings. It