Canon Spratte is an important man and most of all in his own mind. He is the son of a Lord Chancellor of England, which alone should insure him the position to which he knows he is entitled. He deserves to be the next Bishop of Sheffield. "Spratte never concealed from the world that he rated himself highly. He esteemed bashfulness a sign of bad manners, and used to say that a man who pretended not to know his own value was a fool." He knows theoretically that others might not share his good opinion of himself, but he is amazed to find his own family among them.