I just rejoined the Episcopal Church (very happy about that...after only 55 years, you know). I was introduced to our Verger and (of course) I had no idea of what one was (they carry a stick and head the procession and cane beeves* and errant humans out of the way of the procession, of course). Our Verger is a man of all trades and a fine man he is. I was happy to find this well written piece by Maugham to commemorate vergers everywhere. Hip hip hooray! *Cattle, as in "beefs" after all.
The point of the story is that the verger is fired for being illiterate. The men who fire him think he is simply stupid but he turns out to have remarkable skill in figuring out the commercial value of where to set up shop and what to set up. In the end he earns a fabulous amount of money, for an illiterate man and makes an ironic comment about his position (had he been able to read and write he would now be only the verger of St. Paul's).