The great examination had begun. Ranged at the long rows of tables
sat the fairest of England's maidenhood; some conning the paper with
painful perplexity, while others scribbled down the answers with
feverish haste, or gazed imploringly up to the gallery whence their
anxious lovers regarded them. Amongst these was plainly visible the
heroic form of STREPHON SMITH.
Seated on a daïs at the end of the room was Professor PLUMBOSS,
the chief examiner, the same who had ploughed no fewer than 5428
candidates at the last examination. Perhaps it was the effect of
the constant terror of assassination in which he lived, but on this
particular morning the Professor seemed ill-at-ease. Ever and anon he
pressed his hand firmly on his head, as if he wished to retain a wig
in its place; now and then he fumbled mysteriously with his beard.
Could it be a false one?
But AMARYLLIS had no leisure to observe such trifles. With unfaltering
pen she dashed off the answers to all the questions without a moment's
hesitation, and she had finished a good half-hour before the appointed
time. With all her wondrous grace of movement she tripped lightly up
the room, and handed over her papers to the Professor. Surely there
was an ill-disguised twinkle of elation in his eyes as he took them.
And then, when AMARYLLIS had left, with her papers in his hand, he
edged nearer and nearer to the fire-place. As if by accident, he
prepared to drop them into the flames.
Little had he recked that the eagle eye of STREPHON SMITH was upon
him. With a single bound that intrepid hero leaped from the gallery to
the floor, rushed upon the Professor, with one resolute sweep of his
hand knocked off his wig, spectacles and false beard, and disclosed
the pale and trembling features of his hated rival, MELIBOEUS BROWN!
* * *