Raymond by John Lang

Having once fairly entered on his duties as an usher, Henry followed them up with as much zeal as he could muster. But the monotonous drudgery of his vocation--perhaps the most repulsive of any to which a poor man can be subjected--soon began to wear away what little remained of freshness and ardour in his character. Mr Dobbs, too, though a cordial and well-natured fellow in his way, when nothing occurred to disturb his self-complacency, was one of those personages with whom he found it impossible to sympathize. His very excellences were annoying, for his good temper was apt to assume a patronizing form, and his ignorance and vanity met Raymond at every turn. Occasionally, too, he would be seized with fits of sulkiness, and then nothing that his usher did could please him. Henry's temper was sorely tried by these ebullitions; nevertheless, he allowed no angry word to escape him, but strove to maintain an appearance of stoical equanimity.

So six months passed away, at the expiration of which period all that remained of Raymond's capital was twenty pounds! He made many efforts to improve his income, and frequently called on the publisher of his "Æschylus," in the hope of hearing some welcome intelligence respecting its sale, but the answer he got was invariably the same; and though on one occasion a letter was put into his hands, written by an eminent Oxford scholar, expressing high admiration of the style in which the translation was executed, yet this barren praise was all he obtained, with the exception of the revision of a small MS. essay on the Greek drama, for which he was paid a mere trifle.