I have not any more time now; as to arithmetic, we'll examine you in 'some of it' to-morrow.' So Charley, with a faint heart, went back to his cousin's lodgings and waited till the two friends had arrived from the Weights and Measures.

The men there made a point of staying up to five o'clock, as is the case with all model officials, and it was therefore late before he could get himself properly set to work.
But when they did arrive, preparations for calligraphy were made on a great scale; a volume of Gibbon was taken down, new quill pens, large and small, and steel pens by various makers were procured; cream-laid paper was provided, and ruled lines were put beneath it.

And when this was done, Charley was especially cautioned to copy the spelling as well as the wording.
He worked thus for an hour before dinner, and then for three hours in the evening, and produced a very legible copy of half a chapter of the 'Decline and Fall.' 'I didn't think they examined at all at the Navigation,' said Norman.
'Well, I believe it's quite a new thing,' said Alaric Tudor.

'The schoolmaster must be abroad with a vengeance, if he has got as far as that.' And then they carefully examined Charley's work, crossed his t's, dotted his i's, saw that his spelling was right, and went to bed.
Again, punctually at ten o'clock, Charley presented himself at the Internal Navigation; and again saw the two seedy old messengers warming themselves at the lobby fire.

On this occasion he was kept three hours in the waiting-room, and some of the younger clerks ventured to come and speak to him.