«The Usher of Lea House School» by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

'Mr. Lumsden, the senior partner of Lumsden and Westmacott, the well known scholastic and clerical agents, was a small, dapper man, with a sharp, abrupt manner, a critical eye, and an incisive way of speaking. 'Your name, sir?' said he, sitting, pen in hand, with his long, red lined folio in front of him. 'Harold Weld.' 'Oxford or Cambridge?' 'Cambridge.' 'Honours?' 'No, sir.' 'Athlete?' 'Nothing remarkable, I am afraid.' 'Not a Blue?' 'Oh no.' Mr. Lumsden shook his head despondently and shrugged his shoulders in a way which sent my hopes down to zero. 'There is a very keen competition for masterships, Mr. Weld,' said he. 'The vacancies are few and the applicants innumerable. A first class athlete, oar, or cricketer, or a man who has passed very high in his examinations, can usually find a vacancy I might say always in the case of the cricketer. But the average man if you will excuse the description, Mr. Weld has a very great difficulty, almost an insurmountable difficulty. We have already more than a hundred such names upon our lists, and if you think it worth while our adding yours, I dare say that in the course of some years we may possibly be able to find you some opening which…'