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Blazor WebAssembly By
Example
Second Edition

Use practical projects to start building web apps with

.NET 7, Blazor WebAssembly, and C#

Toi B. Wright

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI
Blazor WebAssembly By Example
Second Edition
Copyright © 2023 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief
quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information
presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or
implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any
damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products
mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee
the accuracy of this information.

Senior Publishing Product Manager: Suman Sen

Acquisition Editor – Peer Reviews: Saby Dsilva
Project Editor: Amisha Vathare
Content Development Editor: Shazeen Iqbal
Copy Editor: Safis Editing
Technical Editor: Aneri Patel
Proofreader: Safis Editing
Indexer: Sejal Dsilva
Presentation Designer: Pranit Padwal
Developer Relations Marketing Executive: Priyadarshini Sharma

First published: June 2021

Second edition: February 2023

Production reference: 1210223

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham
B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-80324-185-2

www.packt.com
To my boys, for their never-ending patience and understanding. To my readers, for their ceaseless curiosity
about new technologies.

– Toi B. Wright
 Foreword
Hi, friends! I love a good second edition. It’s an opportunity to update and add to something that’s
already great. You take feedback from the readers and the community, absorb the zeitgeist, and
turn an A into an A+. Toi has taken Blazor WebAssembly By Example to the next level and now
we welcome you all, readers old and new.

I have known Toi Wright for more than 17 years. I first met her at the Microsoft MVP Summit in
Redmond back in 2005, if you can believe that. She is a brilliant technologist, community leader,
and tech organizer, and we see each other every year at the annual Microsoft MVP Summit. I’ve
had the opportunity to travel from my home in Portland to beautiful Dallas to speak in person at
the Dallas ASP.NET User Group where she’s the president and founder.

Toi has been very active in the ASP.NET community for many years. She brings energy and exper-
tise to everything she does. She has written courseware for Microsoft on ASP.NET and this is her
third book on the topic. She’s a respected programmer, architect, and communicator.

In this book, she walks you step by step through the creation of 11 standalone projects that are
built using the Blazor WebAssembly framework. You’ll learn how to leverage your experience
with the .NET ecosystem to complete many different types of projects. Blazor takes .NET – and
your .NET skills – to the web in a new way, and this book is the key.

The second edition adds small updates everywhere, but also includes new chapters on debugging,
deploying to Azure, and using tech like Azure Active Directory to secure a Blazor WebAssembly app.

In Blazor WebAssembly By Example, Toi shares her extensive knowledge and years of experience
as a web developer and has created an easy-to-follow guide for you to quickly learn how to use the
Blazor WebAssembly framework. Through her words, step-by-step instructions, copious screenshots,
and code samples, you will get started running C# in your browser instead of JavaScript. Everything
she’ll show you, including .NET and Blazor itself, is all open source and based on open standards! I’m
so glad that we both have a partner in Toi Wright to guide us in this powerful new web framework!

Scott Hanselman – hanselman.com

Partner Program Manager at Microsoft

Host of the Hanselminutes Fresh Tech Podcast

 Contributors

About the author

Toi B. Wright has been obsessed with ASP.NET for over 20 years and has been recognized as a
Microsoft MVP in ASP.NET for the past 18 years. Toi is a full-stack web developer on the Microsoft
stack as well as a book author, courseware author, speaker, and community leader with over 25
years of experience with full life-cycle application development in a corporate environment. She
has a BS in computer science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

Toi B. Wright currently works with an amazing team at First Command Financial Services, Inc.

You can reach her on Twitter at @misstoi.

I would like to thank my husband and our two sons for their unwavering patience and encouragement
during the countless hours I spent typing away at my computer writing this book. I could not have done
this without you.
About the reviewers
Michele Aponte has been a passionate programmer since 1993, and has worked as a Java, .NET,
and JavaScript programmer for several Italian software houses and IT consultancy firms. In 2013,
he founded the IT company Blexin, which helps its customers to migrate their old solutions to
new technologies, offering them training, consulting, and development.

In 2020 he founded Ellycode to combine two great passions of his life, artificial intelligence and
user experience, which led to the creation of a dashboarding and data visualization platform: Elly.
Last but not least, his passion for teaching prompted Michele to found Improove; a startup that
will redefine the concept of teaching online courses.

He has always believed in the value of sharing, which is why, in December 2008, he founded
DotNetCampania, a Microsoft community for which he has organized many free regional confer-
ences. Microsoft awarded him the MVP award for these activities. In 2020, he brought his passion
to Blazor Developer Italiani, the Italian community on the Blazor framework, of which he is the
founder and community manager. His love for digital pushed him, again in 2020, to join Fare
Digitale, an association that promotes the enhancement of digital culture in Italy.

Michele also speaks at the most important Italian and international conferences on Microsoft
and JavaScript technologies. He has written several technical books and defines himself as a
community addict.

Vincent Baaij has been working as a developer/consultant/architect in the IT industry for over
25 years and is still learning new things every day. His focus has always been on the Microsoft and
.NET stack. Since 1999, he has worked primarily with content management systems like Umbraco
and Episerver (now Optimizely). The open-source tools he created when he was an Episerver
employee are ranked among the most popular community-contributed packages.

At present, Vincent works as a Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft where he helps customers to
be successful on the Azure platform. He is also the maintainer of the official Microsoft Fluent UI
Web Components for Blazor library, an open-source component package that wraps the Fluent
UI Web Components for use with .NET 6.0 or higher Blazor applications.
Join our community on Discord
Join our community’s Discord space for discussions with the author and other readers:

https://packt.link/BlazorWASM2e
 Table of Contents

Preface  xxiii

Chapter 1: Introduction to Blazor WebAssembly  1

Benefits of using the Blazor framework ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 2

.NET Framework • 2
Open source • 2
SPA framework • 3
Razor syntax • 3
Awesome tooling • 3
Supported by Microsoft • 4
Hosting models ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 4
Blazor Server • 5
Advantages of Blazor Server • 5
Disadvantages of Blazor Server • 6
Blazor Hybrid • 6
Advantages of Blazor Hybrid • 7
Disadvantages of Blazor Hybrid • 7
Blazor WebAssembly • 7
Advantages of Blazor WebAssembly • 9
Disadvantages of Blazor WebAssembly • 9
Hosting model differences • 10
x Table of Contents

What is WebAssembly? ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 11

WebAssembly goals • 11
WebAssembly support • 12
Setting up your PC ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 12
Installing Microsoft Visual Studio Community Edition • 14
Installing .NET 7.0 • 15
Installing Microsoft SQL Server Express • 16
Create a Microsoft Azure account • 17
Summary �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 18
Questions �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 19
Further reading ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 19

Chapter 2: Building Your First Blazor WebAssembly Application  21

Creating the Demo Blazor WebAssembly Project Technical Requirements ����������������������� 22

Razor components ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 22
Using components • 22
Parameters • 23
Required parameters • 24
Query strings • 24
Naming components • 26
Component life cycle • 26
Component structure • 26
Directives • 27
Markup • 28
Code block • 28
Routing ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 29
Route parameters • 29
Optional route parameters • 31
Catch-all route parameters • 31
Route constraints • 32
Table of Contents xi

Razor syntax ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 33

Inline expressions • 34
Control structures • 34
Conditionals • 34
Loops • 35
Hot Reload ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 37
Creating the Demo Blazor WebAssembly project �������������������������������������������������������������� 38
Project overview • 39
Getting started with the project • 39
Running the Demo project • 41
Examining the Demo project’s structure • 43
The Properties folder • 44
The wwwroot folder • 45
The App component • 47
The Shared folder • 48
The Pages folder • 48
The Client folder • 49
The _Imports.razor file • 49
Examining the shared Razor components • 50
The MainLayout component • 50
The NavMenu component • 52
The SurveyPrompt component • 53
Examining the routable Razor components • 53
The Index component • 53
The Counter component • 54
The FetchData component • 55
Using a component • 57
Modifying a component • 58
Adding a parameter to a component • 60
Using a parameter with an attribute • 61
xii Table of Contents

Adding a route parameter • 62

Using partial classes to separate markup from code • 63
Summary �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 64
Questions �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 64
Further reading ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 65

Chapter 3: Debugging and Deploying a Blazor WebAssembly App  67

Technical requirements ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 68

Debugging a Blazor WebAssembly.app ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 68
Debugging in Visual Studio ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 69
Debugging in the browser • 69
Understanding logging ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 72
Understanding log levels • 74
Setting the minimum log level • 76
Handling exceptions ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 77
Setting error boundaries • 79
Creating a custom error component • 81
Using ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation �������������������������������������������������������������������������� 83
Deploying a Blazor WebAssembly app to Microsoft Azure ������������������������������������������������ 83
Creating the “guess the number” project �������������������������������������������������������������������������� 89
Project overview • 90
Getting started with the project • 90
Adding a Game component • 93
Adding the code • 94
Adding a style sheet • 97
Setting up and playing the game • 98
Adding logging • 99
Debugging in Visual Studio • 100
Updating the code • 101
Debugging in the browser • 102
Table of Contents xiii

Adding an ErrorBoundary component • 104

Deploying the application to Microsoft Azure • 104
Summary ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 105
Questions ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 105
Further reading ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 106

Chapter 4: Building a Modal Dialog Using Templated Components  107

Technical requirements �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 108

Using RenderFragment parameters �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 108
Using EventCallback parameters �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 111
Understanding CSS isolation ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 112
Enabling CSS isolation • 113
Supporting child components • 116
Creating the modal dialog project ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 116
Project overview • 117
Getting started with the project • 117
Adding the Dialog component • 120
Add a CSS file • 121
Test the Dialog component • 122
Add EventCallback parameters • 124
Add RenderFragment parameters • 125
Create a Razor class library • 128
Test the Razor class library • 129
Add a component to the Razor class library • 130
Summary ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 131
Questions ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 131
Further reading ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 132
xiv Table of Contents

Chapter 5: Building a Local Storage Service Using JavaScript

Interoperability (JS Interop)  133

Technical requirements ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 134

Why use JavaScript? ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 134
Exploring JS interop ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 135
Loading JavaScript code • 135
Invoking a JavaScript function from a .NET method • 136
InvokeAsync • 137
InvokeVoidAsync • 139
IJSInProcessRuntime • 141
Invoking a .NET method from a JavaScript function • 142
Using local storage ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 146
Creating the local storage service ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 147
Project overview • 149
Getting started with the project • 149
Writing JavaScript to access local storage • 151
Adding the ILocalStorageService interface • 152
Creating the LocalStorageService class • 153
Creating the DataInfo class • 154
Writing to local storage • 155
Adding a collocated JavaScript file • 157
Reading from local storage • 158
Summary ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 159
Questions ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 160
Further reading ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 160

Chapter 6: Building a Weather App as a Progressive Web App (PWA)  161

Technical requirements ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 162

Understanding PWAs ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 162
HTTPS • 163
Table of Contents xv

Manifest files • 163

Service workers • 164
Working with manifest files �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 164
Working with service workers ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 166
Service worker life cycle • 166
Install • 167
Activate • 167
Fetch • 167
Updating a service worker • 167
Types of service workers • 169
Offline page • 169
Offline copy of pages • 169
Offline copy with offline page • 169
Cache-first network • 170
Advanced caching • 170
Background sync • 170
Using the CacheStorage API �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 170
Using the Geolocation API ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 172
Using the OpenWeather One Call API ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 173
Creating a PWA ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 175
Project overview • 176
Getting started with the project • 176
Add JavaScript to determine our location • 179
Invoke the JavaScript function • 180
Add an OpenWeather class • 183
Install Bootstrap • 184
Add a DailyForecast component • 186
Fetch the forecast • 187
Display the forecast • 189
Add the logo • 190
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
Challis came towards the child, leaned over the table for a moment, and
then sat down opposite to him. Between the two protagonists hovered
Lewes, sceptical, inclined towards aggression.

“I am most interested,” said Challis. “Will you try to tell me, my boy, what
you think of—all this?”

“So elementary ... inchoate ... a disjunctive ... patchwork” replied the
Wonder. His abstracted eyes were blind to the objective world of our
reality; he seemed to be profoundly analysing the very elements of thought.

VII

Then that almost voiceless child found words. Heathcote’s announcement

of lunch was waved aside, the long afternoon waned, and still that thin
trickle of sound flowed on.

The Wonder spoke in odd, pedantic phrases; he used the technicalities of

every science; he constructed his sentences in unusual ways, and often he
paused for a word and gave up the search, admitting that his meaning could
not be expressed through the medium of any language known to him.

Occasionally Challis would interrupt him fiercely, would even rise from his
chair and pace the room, arguing, stating a point of view, combating some
suggestion that underlay the trend of that pitiless wisdom which in the end
bore him down with its unanswerable insistence.

During those long hours much was stated by that small, thin voice which
was utterly beyond the comprehension of the two listeners; indeed, it is
doubtful whether even Challis understood a tithe of the theory that was
actually expressed in words.
As for Lewes, though he was at the time non-plussed, quelled, he was in the
outcome impressed rather by the marvellous powers of memory exhibited
than by the far finer powers shown in the superhuman logic of the
synthesis.

One sees that Lewes entered upon the interview with a mind predisposed to
criticise, to destroy. There can be no doubt that as he listened his
uninformed mind was endeavouring to analyse, to weigh, and to oppose;
and this antagonism and his own thoughts continually interposed between
him and the thought of the speaker. Lewes’s account of what was spoken on
that afternoon is utterly worthless.

Challis’s failure to comprehend was not, at the outset, due to his

antagonistic attitude. He began with an earnest wish to understand: he failed
only because the thing spoken was beyond the scope of his intellectual
powers. But he did, nevertheless, understand the trend of that analysis of
progress; he did in some half-realised way apprehend the gist of that terrible
deduction of a final adjustment.

He must have apprehended, in part, for he fiercely combated the argument,

only to quaver, at last, into a silence which permitted again that trickle of
hesitating, pedantic speech, which was yet so overwhelming, so conclusive.

As the afternoon wore on, however, Challis’s attitude must have changed;
he must have assumed an armour of mental resistance not unlike the
resistance of Lewes. Challis perceived, however dimly, that life would hold
no further pleasure for him if he accepted that theory of origin, evolution,
and final adjustment; he found in this cosmogony no place for his own
idealism; and he feared to be convinced even by that fraction of the whole
argument which he could understand.

We see that Challis, with all his apparent devotion to science, was never
more than a dilettante. He had another stake in the world which, at the last
analysis, he valued more highly than the acquisition of knowledge. Those
means of ease, of comfort, of liberty, of opportunity to choose his work
among various interests, were the ruling influence of his life. With it all
Challis was an idealist, and unpractical. His genial charity, his refinement of
mind, his unthinking generosity, indicate the bias of a character which
inclined always towards a picturesque optimism. It is not difficult to
understand that he dared not allow himself to be convinced by Victor Stott’s
appalling synthesis.

At last, when the twilight was deepening into night, the voice ceased, the
child’s story had been told, and it had not been understood. The Wonder
never again spoke of his theory of life. He realised from that time that no
one could comprehend him.

As he rose to go, he asked one question that, simple as was its expression,
had a deep and wonderful significance.

“Is there none of my kind?” he said. “Is this,” and he laid a hand on the pile
of books before him, “is this all?”

“There is none of your kind,” replied Challis; and the little figure born into
a world that could not understand him, that was not ready to receive him,
walked to the window and climbed out into the darkness.

(Henry Challis is the only man who could ever have given any account of
that extraordinary analysis of life, and he made no effort to recall the
fundamental basis of the argument, and so allowed his memory of the
essential part to fade. Moreover, he had a marked disinclination to speak of
that afternoon or of anything that was said by Victor Stott during those six
momentous hours of expression. It is evident that Challis’s attitude to Victor
Stott was not unlike the attitude of Captain Wallis to Victor Stott’s father on
the occasion of Hampdenshire’s historic match with Surrey. “This man will
have to be barred,” Wallis said. “It means the end of cricket.” Challis, in
effect, thought that if Victor Stott were encouraged, it would mean the end
of research, philosophy, all the mystery, idealism, and joy of life. Once, and
once only, did Challis give me any idea of what he had learned during that
afternoon’s colloquy, and the substance of what Challis then told me will be
found at the end of this volume.)
CHAPTER X
 HIS PASTORS AND MASTERS

For many months after that long afternoon in the library, Challis was
affected with a fever of restlessness, and his work on the book stood still.
He was in Rome during May, and in June he was seized by a sudden whim
and went to China by the Trans-Siberian railway. Lewes did not accompany
him. Challis preferred, one imagines, to have no intercourse with Lewes
while the memory of certain pronouncements was still fresh. He might have
been tempted to discuss that interview, and if, as was practically certain,
Lewes attempted to pour contempt on the whole affair, Challis might have
been drawn into a defence which would have revived many memories he
wished to obliterate.

He came back to London in September—he made the return journey by

steamer—and found his secretary still working at the monograph on the
primitive peoples of Melanesia.

Lewes had spent the whole summer in Challis’s town house in Eaton
Square, whither all the material had been removed two days after that
momentous afternoon in the library of Challis Court.

“I have been wanting your help badly for some time, sir,” Lewes said on the
evening of Challis’s return. “Are you proposing to take up the work again?
If not....” Gregory Lewes thought he was wasting valuable time.

“Yes, yes, of course; I am ready to begin again now, if you care to go on

with me,” said Challis. He talked for a few minutes of the book without any
great show of interest. Presently they came to a pause, and Lewes suggested
that he should give some account of how his time had been spent.

“To-morrow,” replied Challis, “to-morrow will be time enough. I shall settle

down again in a few days.” He hesitated a moment, and then said: “Any
news from Chilborough?”

“N-no, I don’t think so,” returned Lewes. He was occupied with his own
interests; he doubted Challis’s intention to continue his work on the book—
the announcement had been so half-hearted.

“What about that child?” asked Challis.

“That child?” Lewes appeared to have forgotten the existence of Victor

Stott.

“That abnormal child of Stott’s?” prompted Challis.

“Oh! Of course, yes. I believe he still goes nearly every day to the library. I
have been down there two or three times, and found him reading. He has
learned the use of the index-catalogue. He can get any book he wants. He
uses the steps.”

“Do you know what he reads?”

“No; I can’t say I do.”

“What do you think will become of him?”

“Oh! these infant prodigies, you know,” said Lewes with a large air of
authority, “they all go the same way. Most of them die young, of course, the
others develop into ordinary commonplace men rather under than over the
normal ability. After all, it is what one would expect. Nature always
maintains her average by some means or another. If a child like this with his
abnormal memory were to go on developing, there would be no place for
him in the world’s economy. The idea is inconceivable.”
“Quite, quite,” murmured Challis, and after a short silence he added: “You
think he will deteriorate, that his faculties will decay prematurely?”

“I should say there could be no doubt of it,” replied Lewes.

“Ah! well. I’ll go down and have a look at him, one day next week,” said
Challis; but he did not go till the middle of October.

The direct cause of his going was a letter from Crashaw, who offered to
come up to town, as the matter was one of “really peculiar urgency.”

“I wonder if young Stott has been blaspheming again,” Challis remarked to

Lewes. “Wire the man that I’ll go down and see him this afternoon. I shall
motor. Say I’ll be at Stoke about half-past three.”

II

Challis was ushered into Crashaw’s study on his arrival, and found the
rector in company with another man—introduced as Mr. Forman—a jolly-
looking, high-complexioned man of sixty or so, with a great quantity of
white hair on his head and face; he was wearing an old-fashioned morning-
coat and grey trousers that were noticeably too short for him.

Crashaw lost no time in introducing the subject of “really peculiar urgency,”

but he rambled in his introduction.

“You have probably forgotten,” he said, “that last spring I had to bring a
most horrible charge against a child called Victor Stott, who has since been
living, practically, as I may say, under your ægis, that is, he has, at least,
spent a greater part of his day, er—playing in your library at Challis Court.”

“Quite, quite; I remember perfectly,” said Challis. “I made myself

responsible for him up to a certain point. I gave him an occupation. It was
intended, was it not, to divert his mind from speaking against religion to the
yokels?”

“Quite a character, if I may say so,” put in Mr. Forman cheerfully.

Crashaw was seated at his study table; the affair had something the effect of
an examining magistrate taking the evidence of witnesses.

“Yes, yes,” he said testily; “I did ask your help, Mr. Challis, and I did, in a
way, receive some assistance from you. That is, the child has to some extent
been isolated by spending so much of his time at your house.”

“Has he broken out again?” asked Challis.

“If I understand you to mean has the child been speaking openly on any
subject connected with religion, I must say ‘No,’” said Crashaw. “But he
never attends any Sunday school, or place of worship; he has received no
instruction in—er—any sacred subject, though I understand he is able to
read; and his time is spent among books which, pardon me, would not, I
suppose, be likely to give a serious turn to his thoughts.”

“Serious?” questioned Challis.

“Perhaps I should say ‘religious,’” replied Crashaw. “To me the two words
are synonymous.”

Mr. Forman bowed his head slightly with an air of reverence, and nodded
two or three times to express his perfect approval of the rector’s sentiments.

“You think the child’s mind is being perverted by his intercourse with the
books in the library where he—he—‘plays’ was your word, I believe?”

“No, not altogether,” replied Crashaw, drawing his eyebrows together. “We
can hardly suppose that he is able at so tender an age to read, much less to
understand, those works of philosophy and science which would produce an
evil effect on his mind. I am willing to admit, since I, too, have had some
training in scientific reading, that writers on those subjects are not easily
understood even by the mature intelligence.”

“Then why, exactly, do you wish me to prohibit the child from coming to
Challis Court?”

“Possibly you have not realised that the child is now five years old?” said
Crashaw with an air of conferring illumination.

“Indeed! Yes. An age of some discretion, no doubt,” returned Challis.

“An age at which the State requires that he should receive the elements of
education,” continued Crashaw.

“Eh?” said Challis.

“Time he went to school,” explained Mr. Forman. “I’ve been after him, you
know. I’m the attendance officer for this district.”

Challis for once committed a breach of good manners. The import of the
thing suddenly appealed to his sense of humour: he began to chuckle and
then he laughed out a great, hearty laugh, such as had not been stirred in
him for twenty years.

“Oh! forgive me, forgive me,” he said, when he had recovered his self-
control. “But you don’t know; you can’t conceive the utter, childish
absurdity of setting that child to recite the multiplication table with village
infants of his own age. Oh! believe me, if you could only guess, you would
laugh with me. It’s so funny, so inimitably funny.”

“I fail to see, Mr. Challis,” said Crashaw, “that there is anything in any way
absurd or—or unusual in the preposition.”

“Five is the age fixed by the State,” said Mr. Forman. He had relaxed into a
broad smile in sympathy with Challis’s laugh, but he had now relapsed into
a fair imitation of Crashaw’s intense seriousness.
“Oh! How can I explain?” said Challis. “Let me take an instance. You
propose to teach him, among other things, the elements of arithmetic?”

“It is a part of the curriculum,” replied Mr. Forman.

“I have only had one conversation with this child,” went on Challis—and at
the mention of that conversation his brows drew together and he became
very grave again; “but in the course of that conversation this child had
occasion to refer, by way of illustration, to some abstruse theorem of the
differential calculus. He did it, you will understand, by way of making his
meaning clear—though the illustration was utterly beyond me: that
reference represented an act of intellectual condescension.”

“God bless me, you don’t say so?” said Mr. Forman.

“I cannot see,” said Crashaw, “that this instance of yours, Mr. Challis, has
any real bearing on the situation. If the child is a mathematical genius—
there have been instances in history, such as Blaise Pascal—he would not,
of course, receive elementary instruction in a subject with which he was
already acquainted.”

“You could not find any subject, believe me, Crashaw, in which he could be
instructed by any teacher in a Council school.”

“Forgive me, I don’t agree with you,” returned Crashaw. “He is sadly in
need of some religious training.”

“He would not get that at a Council school,” said Challis, and Mr. Forman
shook his head sadly, as though he greatly deprecated the fact.

“He must learn to recognise authority,” said Crashaw. “When he has been
taught the necessity of submitting himself to all his governors, teachers,
spiritual pastors, and masters: ordering himself lowly and reverently to all
his betters; when, I say, he has learnt that lesson, he may be in a fit and
proper condition to receive the teachings of the Holy Church.”
Mr. Forman appeared to think he was attending divine service. If the rector
had said “Let us pray,” there can be no doubt that he would immediately
have fallen on his knees.

Challis shook his head. “You can’t understand, Crashaw,” he said.

“I do understand,” said Crashaw, rising to his feet, “and I intend to see that
the statute is not disobeyed in the case of this child, Victor Stott.”

Challis shrugged his shoulders; Mr. Forman assumed an expression of stern

determination.

“In any case, why drag me into it?” asked Challis.

Crashaw sat down again. The flush which had warmed his sallow skin
subsided as his passion died out. He had worked himself into a condition of
righteous indignation, but the calm politeness of Challis rebuked him. If
Crashaw prided himself on his devotion to the Church, he did not wish that
attitude to overshadow the pride he also took in the belief that he was
Challis’s social equal. Crashaw’s father had been a lawyer, with a fair
practice in Derby, but he had worked his way up to a partnership from the
position of office-boy, and Percy Crashaw seldom forgot to be conscious
that he was a gentleman by education and profession.

“I did not wish to drag you into this business,” he said quietly, putting his
elbows on the writing-table in front of him, and reassuming the judicial
attitude he had adopted earlier; “but I regard this child as, in some sense,
your protégé.” Crashaw put the tips of his fingers together, and Mr. Forman
watched him warily, waiting for his cue. If this was to be a case for prayer,
Mr. Forman was ready, with a clean white handkerchief to kneel upon.

“In some sense, perhaps,” returned Challis. “I haven’t seen him for some
months.”

“Cannot you see the necessity of his attending school?” asked Crashaw, this
time with an insinuating suavity; he believed that Challis was coming
round.
“Oh!” Challis sighed with a note of expostulation. “Oh! the thing’s
grotesque, ridiculous.”

“If that’s so,” put in Mr. Forman, who had been struck by a brilliant idea,
“why not bring the child here, and let the Reverend Mr. Crashaw, or myself,
put a few general questions to ’im?”

“Ye-es,” hesitated Crashaw, “that might be done; but, of course, the

decision does not rest with us.”

“It rests with the Local Authority,” mused Challis. He was running over
three or four names of members of that body who were known to him.

“Certainly,” said Crashaw, “the Local Education Authority alone has the
right to prosecute, but——” He did not state his antithesis. They had come
to the crux which Crashaw had wished to avoid. He had no weight with the
committee of the L.E.A., and Challis’s recommendation would have much
weight. Crashaw intended that Victor Stott should attend school, but he had
bungled his preliminaries: he had rested on his own authority, and forgotten
that Challis had little respect for that influence. Conciliation was the only
card to play now.

“If I brought him, he wouldn’t answer your questions,” sighed Challis.

“He’s very difficult to deal with.”

“Is he, indeed?” sympathised Mr. Forman. “I’ve ’ardly seen ’im myself; not
to speak to, that is.”

“He might come with his mother,” suggested Crashaw.

Challis shook his head. “By the way, it is the mother whom you would
proceed against?” he asked.

“The parent is responsible,” said Mr. Forman. “She will be brought before a
magistrate and fined for the first offence.”

“I shan’t fine her if she comes before me,” replied Challis.

Crashaw smiled. He meant to avoid that eventuality.

The little meeting lapsed into a brief silence. There seemed to be nothing
more to say.

“Well,” said Crashaw, at last, with a rising inflexion that had a conciliatory,
encouraging, now-my-little-man kind of air, “We-ll, of course, no one
wishes to proceed to extremes. I think, Mr. Challis, I think I may say that
you are the person who has most influence in this matter, and I cannot
believe that you will go against the established authority both of the Church
and the State. If it were only for the sake of example.”

Challis rose deliberately. He shook his head, and unconsciously his hands
went behind his back. There was hardly room for him to pace up and down,
but he took two steps towards Mr. Forman, who immediately rose to his
feet; and then he turned and went over to the window. It was from there that
he pronounced his ultimatum.

“Regulations, laws, religious and lay authorities,” he said, “come into

existence in order to deal with the rule, the average. That must be so. But if
we are a reasoning, intellectual people we must have some means of dealing
with the exception. That means rests with a consensus of intelligent opinion
strong enough to set the rule upon one side. In an overwhelming majority of
cases there is no such consensus of opinion, and the exceptional individual
suffers by coming within the rule of a law which should not apply to him.
Now, I put it to you, as reasoning, intelligent men” (’ear, ’ear, murmured
Mr. Forman automatically), “are we, now that we have the power to
perform a common act of justice, to exempt an unfortunate individual
exception who has come within the rule of a law that holds no application
for him, or are we to exhibit a crass stupidity by enforcing that law? Is it not
better to take the case into our own hands, and act according to the dictates
of common sense?”

“Very forcibly put,” murmured Mr. Forman.

“I’m not finding any fault with the law or the principle of the law,”
continued Challis; “but it is, it must be, framed for the average. We must
use our discretion in dealing with the exception—and this is an exception
such as has never occurred since we have had an Education Act.”

“I don’t agree with you,” said Crashaw, stubbornly. “I do not consider this
an exception.”

“But you must agree with me, Crashaw. I have a certain amount of
influence and I shall use it.”

“In that case,” replied Crashaw, rising to his feet, “I shall fight you to the
bitter end. I am determined”—he raised his voice and struck the writing-
table with his fist—“I am determined that this infidel child shall go to
school. I am prepared, if necessary, to spend all my leisure in seeing that the
law is carried out.”

Mr. Forman had also risen. “Very right, very right, indeed,” he said, and he
knitted his mild brows and stroked his patriarchal white beard with a
simulation of stern determination.

“I think you would be better advised to let the matter rest,” said Challis.

Mr. Forman looked inquiringly at the representative of the Church.

“I shall fight,” replied Crashaw, stubbornly, fiercely.

“Ha!” said Mr. Forman.

“Very well, as you think best,” was Challis’s last word.

As Challis walked down to the gate, where his motor was awaiting him, Mr.
Forman trotted up from behind and ranged himself alongside.

“More rain wanted yet for the roots, sir,” he said. “September was a grand
month for ’arvest, but we want rain badly now.”

“Quite, quite,” murmured Challis, politely. He shook hands with Mr.

Forman before he got into the car.
Mr. Forman, standing politely bareheaded, saw that Mr. Challis’s car went
in the direction of Ailesworth.
CHAPTER XI
 HIS EXAMINATION

Challis’s first visit was paid to Sir Deane Elmer, that man of many
activities, whose name inevitably suggests his favourite phrase of
“Organised Progress”—with all its variants.

This is hardly the place in which to criticise a man of such diverse abilities
as Deane Elmer, a man whose name still figures so prominently in the
public press in connection with all that is most modern in eugenics; with the
Social Reform programme of the moderate party; with the reconstruction of
our penal system; with education, and so many kindred interests; and,
finally, of course, with colour photography and process printing. This last
Deane Elmer always spoke of as his hobby, but we may doubt whether all
his interests were not hobbies in the same sense. He is the natural
descendant of those earlier amateur scientists—the adjective conveys no
reproach—of the nineteenth century, among whom we remember such
striking figures as those of Lord Avebury and Sir Francis Galton.

In appearance Deane Elmer was a big, heavy, rather corpulent man, with a
high complexion, and his clean-shaven jowl and his succession of chins
hung in heavy folds. But any suggestion of material grossness was
contradicted by the brightness of his rather pale-blue eyes, by his alertness
of manner, and by his ready, whimsical humour.

As chairman of the Ailesworth County Council, and its most prominent

unpaid public official—after the mayor—Sir Deane Elmer was certainly the
most important member of the Local Authority, and Challis wisely sought
him at once. He found him in the garden of his comparatively small
establishment on the Quainton side of the town. Elmer was very much
engaged in photographing flowers from nature through the ruled screen and
colour filter—in experimenting with the Elmer process, in fact; by which
the intermediate stage of a coloured negative is rendered unnecessary. His
apparatus was complicated and cumbrous.

“Show Mr. Challis out here,” he commanded the man who brought the
announcement.

“You must forgive me, Challis,” said Elmer, when Challis appeared. “We
haven’t had such a still day for weeks. It’s the wind upsets us in this
process. Screens create a partial vacuum.”

He was launched on a lecture upon his darling process before Challis could
get in a word. It was best to let him have his head, and Challis took an
intelligent interest.

It was not until the photographs were taken, and his two assistants could
safely be trusted to complete the mechanical operations, that Elmer could
be divorced from his hobby. He was full of jubilation. “We should have
excellent results,” he boomed—he had a tremendous voice—“but we shan’t
be able to judge until we get the blocks made. We do it all on the spot. I
have a couple of platens in the shops here; but we shan’t be able to take a
pull until to-morrow morning, I’m afraid. You shall have a proof, Challis.
We should get magnificent results.” He looked benignantly at the vault of
heaven, which had been so obligingly free from any current of air.

Challis was beginning to fear that even now he would be allowed no

opportunity to open the subject of his mission. But quite suddenly Elmer
dropped the shutter on his preoccupation, and with that ready adaptability
which was so characteristic of the man, forgot his hobby for the time being,
and turned his whole attention to a new subject.

“Well?” he said, “what is the latest news in anthropology?”

“A very remarkable phenomenon,” replied Challis. “That is what I have
come to see you about.”

“I thought you were in Paraguay pigging it with the Guaranis——”

“No, no; I don’t touch the Americas,” interposed Challis. “I want all your
attention, Elmer. This is important.”

“Come into my study,” said Elmer, “and let us have the facts. What will you
have—tea, whisky, beer?”

Challis’s résumé of the facts need not be reported. When it was

accomplished, Elmer put several keen questions, and finally delivered his
verdict thus:

“We must see the boy, Challis. Personally I am, of course, satisfied, but we
must not give Crashaw opportunity to raise endless questions, as he can and
will. There is Mayor Purvis, the grocer, to be reckoned with, you must
remember. He represents a powerful Nonconformist influence. Crashaw
will get hold of him—and work him if we see Purvis first. Purvis always
stiffens his neck against any breach of conventional procedure. If Crashaw
saw him first, well and good, Purvis would immediately jump to the
conclusion that Crashaw intended some subtle attack on the Nonconformist
position, and would side with us.”

“I don’t think I know Purvis,” mused Challis.

“Purvis & Co. in the Square,” prompted Elmer. “Black-and-white fellow;

black moustache and side whiskers, black eyes and white face. There’s a
suggestion of the Methodist pulpit about him. Doesn’t appear in the shop
much, and when he does, always looks as if he’d sooner sell you a Bible
than a bottle of whisky.”

“Ah, yes! I know,” said Challis. “I daresay you’re right, Elmer; but it will
be difficult to persuade this child to answer any questions his examiners
may put to him.”
“Surely he must be open to reason,” roared Elmer. “You tell me he has an
extraordinary intelligence, and in the next sentence you imply that the
child’s a fool who can’t open his mouth to serve his own interests. What’s
your paradox?”

“Sublimated material. Intellectual insight and absolute spiritual blindness,”

replied Challis, getting to his feet. “The child has gone too far in one
direction—in another he has made not one step. His mind is a magnificent,
terrible machine. He has the imagination of a mathematician and a logician
developed beyond all conception, he has not one spark of the imagination of
a poet. And so he cannot deal with men; he can’t understand their
weaknesses and limitations; they are geese and hens to him, creatures to be
scared out of his vicinity. However, I will see what I can do. Could you
arrange for the members of the Authority to come to my place?”

“I should think so. Yes,” said Elmer. “I say, Challis, are you sure you’re
right about this child? Sounds to me like some—some freak.”

“You’ll see,” returned Challis. “I’ll try and arrange an interview. I’ll let you
know.”

“And, by the way,” said Elmer, “you had better invite Crashaw to be
present. He will put Purvis’s back up, and that’ll enlist the difficult grocer
on our side probably.”

When Challis had gone, Elmer stood for a few minutes, thoughtfully
scratching the ample red surface of his wide, clean-shaven cheek. “I don’t
know,” he ejaculated at last, addressing his empty study, “I don’t know.”
And with that expression he put all thought of Victor Stott away from him,
and sat down to write an exhaustive article on the necessity for a broader
basis in primary education.

II
Challis called at the rectory of Stoke-Underhill on his way back to his own
house.

“I give way,” was the characteristic of his attitude to Crashaw, and the
rector suppled his back again, remembered the Derby office-boy’s tendency
to brag, and made the amende honorable. He even overdid his magnanimity
and came too near subservience—so lasting is the influence of the lessons
of youth.

Crashaw did not mention that in the interval between the two interviews he
had called upon Mr. Purvis in the Square. The ex-mayor had refused to
commit himself to any course of action.

Challis forgot the rectory and all that it connoted before he was well outside
the rectory’s front door. Challis had a task before him that he regarded with
the utmost distaste. He had warmly championed a cause; he had been
heated by the presentation of a manifest injustice which was none the less
tyrannical because it was ridiculous. But now he realised that it was only
the abstract question which had aroused his enthusiastic advocacy, and he
shrank from the interview with Victor Stott—that small, deliberate,
intimidating child.

Henry Challis, the savant, the man of repute in letters, the respected figure
in the larger world; Challis, the proprietor and landlord; Challis, the power
among known men, knew that he would have to plead, to humble himself,
to be prepared for a rebuff—worst of all, to acknowledge the justice of
taking so undignified a position. Any aristocrat may stoop with dignity
when he condescends of his own free will; but there are few who can
submit gracefully to deserved contempt.

Challis was one of the few. He had many admirable qualities. Nevertheless,
during that short motor ride from Stoke to his own house, he resented the
indignity he anticipated, resented it intensely—and submitted.
III

He was allowed no respite. Victor Stott was emerging from the library
window as Challis rolled up to the hall door. It was one of Ellen Mary’s
days—she stood respectfully in the background while her son descended;
she curtsied to Challis as he came forward.

He hesitated a moment. He would not risk insult in the presence of his

chauffeur and Mrs. Stott. He confronted the Wonder; he stood before him,
and over him like a cliff.

“I must speak to you for a moment on a matter of some importance,” said

Challis to the little figure below him, and as he spoke he looked over the
child’s head at the child’s mother. “It is a matter that concerns your own
welfare. Will you come into the house with me for a few minutes?”

Ellen Mary nodded, and Challis understood. He turned and led the way. At
the door, however, he stood aside and spoke again to Mrs. Stott. “Won’t you
come in and have some tea, or something?” he asked.

“No, sir, thank you, sir,” replied Ellen Mary; “I’ll just wait ’ere till ’e’s
ready.”

“At least come in and sit down,” said Challis, and she came in and sat in the
hall. The Wonder had already preceded them into the house. He had walked
into the morning-room—probably because the door stood open, though he
was now tall enough to reach the handles of the Challis Court doors. He
stood in the middle of the room when Challis entered.

“Won’t you sit down?” said Challis.

The Wonder shook his head.

“I don’t know if you are aware,” began Challis, “that there is a system of
education in England at the present time, which requires that every child
should attend school at the age of five years, unless the parents are able to
provide their children with an education elsewhere.”

The Wonder nodded.

Challis inferred that he need proffer no further information with regard to

the Education Act.

“Now, it is very absurd,” he continued, “and I have, myself, pointed out the
absurdity; but there is a man of some influence in this neighbourhood who
insists that you should attend the elementary school.” He paused, but the
Wonder gave no sign.

“I have argued with this man,” continued Challis, “and I have also seen
another member of the Local Education Authority—a man of some note in
the larger world—and it seems that you cannot be exempted unless you
convince the Authority that your knowledge is such that to give you a
Council school education would be the most absurd farce.”

“Cannot you stand in loco parentis?” asked the Wonder suddenly, in his
still, thin voice.

“You mean,” said Challis, startled by this outburst, “that I am in a sense

providing you with an education? Quite true; but there is Crashaw to deal
with.”

“Inform him,” said the Wonder.

Challis sighed. “I have,” he said, “but he can’t understand.” And then,

feeling the urgent need to explain something of the motives that govern this
little world of ours—the world into which this strangely logical exception
had been born—Challis attempted an exposition.

“I know,” he said, “that these things must seem to you utterly absurd, but
you must try to realise that you are an exception to the world about you;
that Crashaw or I, or, indeed, the greatest minds of the present day, are not
ruled by the fine logic which you are able to exercise. We are children
compared to you. We are swayed even in the making of our laws by little
primitive emotions and passions, self-interests, desires. And at the best we
are not capable of ordering our lives and our government to those just ends
which we may see, some of us, are abstractly right and fine. We are at the
mercy of that great mass of the people who have not yet won to an
intellectual and discriminating judgment of how their own needs may best
be served, and whose representatives consider the interests of a party, a
constituency, and especially of their own personal ambitions and welfare,
before the needs of humanity as a whole, or even the humanity of these
little islands.

“Above all, we are divided man against man. We are split into parties and
factions, by greed and jealousies, petty spites and self-seeking, by
unintelligence, by education, and by our inability—a mental inability—‘to
see life steadily and see it whole,’ and lastly, perhaps chiefly, by our intense
egotisms, both physical and intellectual.

“Try to realise this. It is necessary, because whatever your wisdom, you

have to live in a world of comparative ignorance, a world which cannot
appreciate you, but which can and will fall back upon the compelling power
of the savage—the resort to physical, brute force.”

The Wonder nodded. “You suggest——?” he said.

“Merely that you should consent to answer certain elementary questions

which the members of the Local Authority will put to you,” replied Challis.
“I can arrange that these questions be asked here—in the library. Will you
consent?”

The Wonder nodded, and made his way into the hall, without another word.
His mother rose and opened the front door for him.

As Challis watched the curious couple go down the drive, he sighed again,
perhaps with relief, perhaps at the impotence of the world of men.
IV

There were four striking figures on the Education Committee selected by

the Ailesworth County Council.

The first of these was Sir Deane Elmer, who was also chairman of the
Council at this time. The second was the vice-chairman, Enoch Purvis, the
ex-mayor, commonly, if incorrectly, known as “Mayor” Purvis.

The third was Richard Standing, J.P., who owned much property on the
Quainton side of the town. He was a bluff, hearty man, devoted to sport and
agriculture; a Conservative by birth and inclination, a staunch upholder of
the Church and the Tariff Reform movement.

The fourth was the Rev. Philip Steven, a co-opted member of the
Committee, head master of the Ailesworth Grammar School. Steven was a
tall, thin man with bent shoulders, and he had a long, thin face, the length of
which was exaggerated by his square brown beard. He wore gold-mounted
spectacles which, owing to his habit of dropping his head, always needed
adjustment whenever he looked up. The movement of lifting his head and
raising his hand to his glasses had become so closely associated, that his
hand went up even when there was no apparent need for the action. Steven
spoke of himself as a Broad Churchman, and in his speech on prize-day he
never omitted some allusion to the necessity for “marching” or “keeping
step” with the times. But Elmer was inclined to laugh at this assumption of
modernity. “Steven,” he said, on one occasion, “marks time and thinks he is
keeping step. And every now and then he runs a little to catch up.” The
point of Elmer’s satire lay in the fact that Steven was usually to be seen
either walking very slowly, head down, lost in abstraction; or—when
aroused to a sense of present necessity—going with long strides as if intent
on catching up with the times without further delay. Very often, too, he
might be seen running across the school playground, his hand up to those
elusive glasses of his. “There goes Mr. Steven, catching up with the times,”
had become an accepted phrase.
There were other members of the Education Committee, notably Mrs.
Philip Steven, but they were subordinate. If those four striking figures were
unanimous, no other member would have dreamed of expressing a contrary
opinion. But up to this time they had not yet been agreed upon any
important line of action.

This four, Challis and Crashaw met in the morning-room of Challis Court
one Thursday afternoon in early June. Elmer had brought a stenographer
with him for scientific purposes.

“Well,” said Challis, when they were all assembled. “The—the subject—I
mean, Victor Stott is in the library. Shall we adjourn?” Challis had not felt
so nervous since the morning before he had sat for honours in the
Cambridge Senate House.

In the library they found a small child, reading.

He did not look up when the procession entered, nor did he remove his
cricket cap. He was in his usual place at the centre table.

Challis found chairs for the Committee, and the members ranged
themselves round the opposite side of the table. Curiously, the effect
produced was that of a class brought up for a viva voce examination, and
when the Wonder raised his eyes and glanced deliberately down the line of
his judges, this effect was heightened. There was an audible fidgeting, a
creak of chairs, an indication of small embarrassments.

“Her—um!” Deane Elmer cleared his throat with noisy vigour; looked at
the Wonder, met his eyes and looked hastily away again; “Hm!—her—
rum!” he repeated, and then he turned to Challis. “So this little fellow has
never been to school?” he said.
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