 The rather mild headmaster of Sanstead House during the events of "The Little Nugget", Mr Arnold Abney is a tall and suave man, with a high forehead, thin white hands, a cooing intonation, and a general air of hushed importance.Abney is an incorrigible namedropper, who rarely completes a sentence without mentioning some noble or important person of his acquaintance.His troublesome ward Ogden Ford refers to him as a 'hot air merchant'.