Lavender
had succeeded in absorbing more than a drop.
"I don't say," he continued, "but what there's a class o' public man
that's got its uses, like the little 'un that keeps us all alive, or
the perfect English gentleman what did his job, and told nobody nothin'
abaht it. You can 'ave confidence in a man like that----that's why 'e's
gone an' retired; 'e's civilized, you see, the finished article; but all
this raw material, this 'get-on' or 'get-out' lot, that's come from
'oo knows where, well, I wish they'd stayed there with their
tell-you-how-to-do-it and their 'ymns of 'ate."
"Joe," said Mr. Lavender, "are you certain that therein does not speak
the snob inherent in the national bosom? Are you not unconsciously
paying deference to the word gentleman?"
"Why not, sir?" replied Joe, tossing off his second glass. "It'd be
a fine thing for the country if we was all gentlemen--straight, an' a
little bit stupid, and 'ad 'alf a thought for others." And he refilled
his master's glass. "I don't measure a gentleman by 'is money, or 'is
title, not even by 'is clothes--I measure 'im by whether he can stand
'avin' power in 'is 'ands without gettin' unscrupled or swollen 'eaded,
an' whether 'e can do what he thinks right without payin' attention,
to clamour.
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