MEMOIR xxxi 



when he wished to do so. Slowly but surely this 

 began to tell on his health, and though the outside 

 world knew little of this, those nearest to him saw 

 only too plainly that all was not well with him. 

 Always of a highly-strung nervous temperament, he 

 became over-anxious about his work, both at St. 

 Paul's and elsewhere. Those who only knew him 

 as a journalist and author could scarcely credit that 

 he was still working at St. Paul's besides, and the 

 knowledge that he was doing more than to some 

 people seemed possible, kept him in a constant state 

 of anxiety lest one or another of his employers 

 might think that he was giving undue attention to 

 the business of the others. 



Although the thoroughness of his work at St. Paul's 

 was constantly proved by the success of his pupils in 

 public examinations (nearly 90 per cent, actually 

 passed the London Matriculation examination in the 

 subjects in which he prepared them), and though 

 constantly assured by equally satisfactory tests of 

 the excellence of his literary work, his mind was 

 never at rest, and this in itself greatly increased 

 the strain upon him. Above all things it dis- 

 tressed him if it were suggested that he was over- 

 worked : not for any fear of the injury it might 

 do to himself, but lest it should be considered 

 possible that his work itself might suffer. His own 

 writings, as well as the testimony of all who knew 

 him, are abundant evidence of his unusually keen 

 powers of appreciation of all that was good in life ; 

 but he was equally sensitive to adverse influences, 



c 



