"I can't tell how it is, sir, but that os always seems to me to want a circumflex, being an adverb of sorts." On top of this, and to make things worse, he pleaded that he had left out the accent in os ptochoi, just above.
"H'm--as poor, and yet thankful for small mercies," commented the Master with gentle sarcasm.

He had learnt in his long life to economise anger.

But he frowned as he dipped a pen in the ink-pot and made the correction; for he was dainty about his manuscripts as about all the furniture of life, and a blot or an erasure annoyed him.

"Brother Copas," he murmured, "never misplaces an accent." Mr.Simeon heard, and started.

It was incredible that the Master, who five-and-twenty years ago had rescued Mr.Simeon from a school for poor choristers and had him specially educated for the sake of his exquisite handwriting, could be threatening dismissal over a circumflex.