"I am to inform you that you are temporarily suspended." And in the
pompous language of headquarters he was further informed that the
person appointed to take over control would arrive at Rodchurch Road
Station by the eleven o'clock train; that he himself was to come to
London on the morrow, and immediately call at the G.P.O.; where, on
the afternoon of that day or the morning of a subsequent day, he would
be given an opportunity of stating his case in person, "agreeable to
his request."

Why had they suspended him? Surely it would have been more usual if
they had allowed him to leave the office in charge of his chief clerk,
or if they had given charge of it to a competent person from Rodhaven,
and not sent a traveler from London? The traveling inspector is the
bird of evil presage: he hovers over the houses of doomed men.

William Dale ran his hand round the collarless neck of his shirt, and
felt the perspiration that had suddenly moistened his skin.

He was a big man of thirty-five; a type of the strong-limbed,
quick-witted peasant, who is by nature active as a squirrel and
industrious as a beaver; and who, if once fired with ambition, soon
learns to direct all his energies to a chosen end, and infallibly wins
his way from the cart-tracks and the muck-wagons to office stools and
black coats. Not yet dressed for the day, in his loose serge jacket
and unbraced trousers, he looked what was termed locally "a rum
customer if you had to tackle un." His dark hair bristled stiffly, his
short mustache wanted a lot of combing, a russet stubble covered chin
and neck; but the broad forehead and blue eyes gave a suggestion of
power and intelligence to an aspect that might otherwise have seemed
simply forbidding.