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The Wheels of Chance Chapters 33 to 36 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section thirteen of the Wheels of Chance. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Patty Cunningham. The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty three, the Abasement of mister Hoopdriver. On Monday morning,
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  Speaker 1: the two fugitives found themselves breakfasting at the Golden Pheasant
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  Speaker 1: and Blandford. They were in the course of an elaborate
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  Speaker 1: doubling movement through Dorsetshire towards Ringwood, where Jesse anticipated an
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  Speaker 1: answer from her schoolmistress friend. By this time they had
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  Speaker 1: been nearly sixty hours together, and you will understand that
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  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver's feelings had undergone a considerable intensification and development.
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  Speaker 1: At first, Jesse had been only an impressionist sketch upon
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  Speaker 1: his mind, something feminine, active and dazzling, something emphatically above him,
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  Speaker 1: cast into his company by a kindly fate. His chief
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  Speaker 1: idea at the outset, as you know, had been to
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  Speaker 1: live up to her level by pretending to be more exceptional,
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  Speaker 1: more wealthy, better educated, and above all better born than
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  Speaker 1: he was. His knowledge of the feminine mind was almost
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  Speaker 1: entirely derived from the young ladies he had met in
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  Speaker 1: business and in that class, as in military society and
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  Speaker 1: among gentlemen servants. The good old tradition of a brutal
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  Speaker 1: social exclusiveness is still religiously preserved. He had an almost
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  Speaker 1: intolerable dread of her, thinking him a bounder. Later he
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  Speaker 1: began to perceive the distinction of her idiosyncrasies, coupled with
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  Speaker 1: a magnificent want of experience, was a splendid enthusiasm for
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  Speaker 1: abstract views of the most advanced description, and her strength
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  Speaker 1: of conviction completely carried Hoopdriver away. She was going to
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  Speaker 1: live her own life with emphasis, and mister Hoopdriver was
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  Speaker 1: profoundly stirred to similar results. So soon as he grasped
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  Speaker 1: the tenor of her views, he perceived that he himself
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  Speaker 1: had thought as much from his earliest years. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: he remarked, in a flash of sexual pride, a man
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  Speaker 1: is freer than a woman, and the colonies. You know,
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  Speaker 1: there isn't half the conventionality you find in society in
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  Speaker 1: this country. He made one or two essays in the
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  Speaker 1: display of unconventionality, and was quite unaware that he impressed her.
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  Speaker 1: As a narrow minded person, he suppressed the habits of
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  Speaker 1: years and made no proposal to go to church. He
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  Speaker 1: discussed church going in a liberal spirit. It's just a habit,
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  Speaker 1: he said, just a custom. I don't see what good
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  Speaker 1: it does you at all, really, And he made a
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  Speaker 1: lot of excellent jokes at the chimney pot hat jokes
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  Speaker 1: he had read in the Globe turnovers on that subject.
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  Speaker 1: But he showed his gentle breeding by keeping his gloves
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  Speaker 1: on all through the Sunday's ride and ostentatiously throwing away
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  Speaker 1: more than half a cigarette. When they passed a church
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  Speaker 1: his congregation was gathering for afternoon service. He cautiously ofvoided
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  Speaker 1: literary topics, except by way of compliment, seeing that she
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  Speaker 1: was presently to be writing books. It was on Jesse's
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  Speaker 1: initiative that the attended service in the old fashioned gallery
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  Speaker 1: of Blandford Church. Jesse's conscience, I may perhaps tell you,
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  Speaker 1: was now suffering the severest twinges. She perceived clearly that
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  Speaker 1: things were not working out quite along the lines she
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  Speaker 1: had designed. She had read her Olive Shriner and George
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  Speaker 1: Edgerton and so forth, with all the want of perfect
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  Speaker 1: comprehension of one who was still emotionally a girl. She
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  Speaker 1: knew the thing to do was to have a flat
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  Speaker 1: and to go to the British Museum and write leading
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  Speaker 1: articles for the daily papers until something better came along.
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  Speaker 1: If Bechamel, detestable person, had kept his promises instead of
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  Speaker 1: behaving with unspeakable horridness, all would have been well. Now.
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  Speaker 1: Her only hope was that liberal minded woman, miss Myrgle,
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  Speaker 1: who a year ago had sent her out, highly educated
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  Speaker 1: into the world. Miss Mergle had told her at parting
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  Speaker 1: to live fearlessly and truly, and had further given her
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  Speaker 1: a volume of Emerson's Essays and Motley's Dutch Republic to
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  Speaker 1: help her through the rapids of adolescence. Jesse's feelings for
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  Speaker 1: her stepmother's household at Surbiton amounted to an active detestation.
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  Speaker 1: There are no graver or more solemn women in the
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  Speaker 1: world than these clever girls, whose scholastic achievement has retarded
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  Speaker 1: their feminine coquetterie. In spite of the advanced tone of
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Plantagenet's anti marital novel, Jesse had speedily seen through
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  Speaker 1: that amiable woman's amiable defenses the variety of pose necessitated
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  Speaker 1: by the cores of men annoyed her to an altogether
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  Speaker 1: unreasonable degree. To return to this life of ridiculous unreality,
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  Speaker 1: unconditional capitulation to conventionality was an exasperating prospect. Yet what
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  Speaker 1: else was there to do? You will understand therefore, that
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  Speaker 1: at times she was moody, and mister Hoopdriver respectfully silent
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  Speaker 1: and attentive, and at times inclined to eloquent denunciation of
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  Speaker 1: the existing order of things. She was a socialist. Hoopdriver learnt,
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  Speaker 1: and he gave a vague intimation that he went further,
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  Speaker 1: intending thereby no less than the horrors of anarchism. He
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  Speaker 1: would have owned up to the destruction of the Winter Palace. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: had he had the faintest idea where the winter Palace was,
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  Speaker 1: and had his assurance amounted to certainty that the Winter
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  Speaker 1: Palace was destroyed, he agreed with her cordially that the
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  Speaker 1: position of women was intolerable, but checked himself on the
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  Speaker 1: verge of the proposition that a girl ought not to
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  Speaker 1: expect a fellow to hand down boxes for her when
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  Speaker 1: he was getting the swap from a customer. It was
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  Speaker 1: Jesse's preoccupation with her own perplexities, no doubt, that delayed
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  Speaker 1: the unveiling of mister Hoopdriver all through Saturday and Sunday.
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  Speaker 1: Once or twice, however, there were incidents that put him
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  Speaker 1: about terribly, even questions that savored of suspicion. On Sunday night,
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  Speaker 1: for nokis receivable reason, an unwonted wakefulness came upon him unaccountably.
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  Speaker 1: He realized he was a contemptible liar. All through the
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  Speaker 1: small hours of Monday he reviewed the tale of his falsehoods,
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  Speaker 1: and when he tried to turn his mind from that,
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  Speaker 1: the financial problem suddenly rose upon him. He heard two
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  Speaker 1: o'clock strike and three. It is odd how unhappy some
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  Speaker 1: of us are at times when we are at our happiest.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty four. Good morning, Madam, said Hoopdriver, as Jesse
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  Speaker 1: came into the breakfast room of the Golden Pheasant on
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  Speaker 1: Monday morning, and he smiled, bowed, rubbed his hands together,
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  Speaker 1: and pulled out a chair for her, and rubbed his
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  Speaker 1: hands again. She stopped abruptly, with a puzzled expression on
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  Speaker 1: her face. Where have I seen that before? She said?
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  Speaker 1: The chair, said Hoopdriver, flushing. No, the attitude She came
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  Speaker 1: forward and shook hands with him, looking the while curiously
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  Speaker 1: into his face. And madam, it's a habit, said mister Hoopdriver, guiltily,
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  Speaker 1: A bad habit calling ladies madam. You must put it
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  Speaker 1: down to our colonial roughness out there up country. You know,
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  Speaker 1: the ladies so rare we call em all madam. You
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  Speaker 1: have some funny habits, brother Chris, said Jesse. Before you
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  Speaker 1: sell your diamond shares and go into society, as you say,
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  Speaker 1: and stand for parliament, what a fine thing it is
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  Speaker 1: to be a man. You must cure yourself that habit
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  Speaker 1: of bowing as you do and rubbing your hands and
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  Speaker 1: looking expectant. It's a habit, I know, but I don't
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  Speaker 1: think it a good one. You don't mind my telling
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  Speaker 1: you not a bit. I'm grateful, I'm blessed, or afflicted
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  Speaker 1: with a trick of observation, said Jesse, looking at the
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  Speaker 1: breakfast table. Mister Hoopdriver put his hand to his mustache,
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  Speaker 1: and then, thinking this might be another habit, checked his
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  Speaker 1: arm and stuck his hand into his pocket. He felt
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  Speaker 1: juiced awkward to use his private formula. Jesse's eye wandered
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  Speaker 1: to the arm chair, where a piece of binding was loose,
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  Speaker 1: and possibly to carry out her theory of an observant disposition,
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  Speaker 1: she turned and asked him for a pin. Mister Hoopdriver's
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  Speaker 1: hand fluttered instinctively to his lapel, and there, planted by
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  Speaker 1: habit were a couple of stray pins he had impounded.
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  Speaker 1: What an odd place to put pins, exclaimed Jessie. Taking
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  Speaker 1: it it's andy, said mister Hoopdriver. I saw a chap
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  Speaker 1: in a shop. Do it once. You must have a
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  Speaker 1: careful disposition, she said over her shoulder, kneeling down to
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  Speaker 1: the chair in the center of Africa, up country, that is,
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  Speaker 1: one learns to value pins, said mister Hoopdriver, after a
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  Speaker 1: perceptible pause. There weren't over many pins in Africa. They
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  Speaker 1: don't lie about on the ground there. His face was
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  Speaker 1: now in a fine red glow. Where would the draper
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  Speaker 1: break out next? He thrust his hands into his coat pockets,
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  Speaker 1: then took one out again. Furtively, removed the second pin
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  Speaker 1: and dropped it behind him gently. It fell with a
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  Speaker 1: loud ping on the fender. Happily. She made no remark,
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  Speaker 1: Being preoccupied with the binding of the chair. Mister Hoopdriver,
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  Speaker 1: instead of sitting down, went up to the table and
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  Speaker 1: stood against it with his finger tips upon the cloth
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  Speaker 1: they were keeping breakfast a tremendous time. He took up
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  Speaker 1: his rolled serviette, looked closely and scrutinizingly at the ring,
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  Speaker 1: and put his hand under the fold of the napkin
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  Speaker 1: and examined the texture, and put the thing down again.
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  Speaker 1: Then he had a vague impulse to finger his hollow
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  Speaker 1: wisdom tooth happily checked. He suddenly discovered he was standing
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  Speaker 1: as if the table was a counter, and sat down
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  Speaker 1: forthwith He drummed with his hand on the table. He
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  Speaker 1: felt dreadfully hot and self conscious. Breakfast is late, said Jesse,
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  Speaker 1: standing up, isn't it? Conversation was slack. Jesse wanted to
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  Speaker 1: know the distance to Ringwood. Then silence fell again. Mister Hoopdriver,
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  Speaker 1: very uncomfortable and studying an easy bearing, looked again at
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  Speaker 1: the breakfast things, and then idly lifted the corner of
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  Speaker 1: the tablecloth on the ends of his fingers and regarded
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  Speaker 1: it fifteen three. He thought, privately, why do you do that?
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  Speaker 1: Said Jesse? What said Hoopdriver, dropping the tablecloth convulsively look
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  Speaker 1: at the cloth like that? I saw you do it
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  Speaker 1: yesterday too. Mister Hoopdriver's face became quite a bright red.
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  Speaker 1: He began pulling his mustache nervously. I know, he said,
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  Speaker 1: I know. It's a queer habit. I know. But out there,
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  Speaker 1: you know, there's native servants, you know, and it's a
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  Speaker 1: queer thing to talk about. But one has to look
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  Speaker 1: at things to see, don't you know, whether they're quite
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  Speaker 1: clean or not. It's got to be a habit. How odd,
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  Speaker 1: said Jesse. Isn't it, mumbled Hoopdriver? If I were a sherlock, Holmes,
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  Speaker 1: said Jesse. I suppose I could have told you were
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  Speaker 1: a colonial from little things like that. But anyhow, I
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  Speaker 1: guessed it, didn't I yes, said Hoopdriver in a melancholy tone.
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  Speaker 1: You guessed it. Why not seize the opportunity for a
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  Speaker 1: neat confession and add unhappily, in this case, you guessed wrong,
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  Speaker 1: did she suspect? Then at the psychological moment, the girl
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  Speaker 1: bumped the door open with her tray and brought in
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  Speaker 1: the coffee and scrambled eggs. I am rather lucky with
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  Speaker 1: my intuitions sometimes, said Jesse. Remorse that had been accumulating
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  Speaker 1: in his mind for two days surged to the top
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  Speaker 1: of his mind, what a shabby liar he was, and besides,
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  Speaker 1: he must sooner or later inevitably give himself away. Chapter
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  Speaker 1: thirty five. Mister hoopdriver helped the eggs, and then, instead
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  Speaker 1: of beginning, sat with his cheek on his hand, watching
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  Speaker 1: Jessee pour out the coffee. His ears were a bright
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  Speaker 1: red and his eyes bright. He took his coffee cup clumsily,
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  Speaker 1: cleared his throat, suddenly leaned back in his chair, and
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  Speaker 1: thrust his hands deep into his pockets. I'll do it,
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  Speaker 1: he said aloud. Do what, said Jesse, looking up in
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  Speaker 1: surprise over the coffee pot. She was just beginning her
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  Speaker 1: scrambled egg Own up own what, miss Milton, I'm a liar.
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  Speaker 1: He put his head on one side and regarded her
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  Speaker 1: with a frown of tremendous resolution. Then, in measured accents
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  Speaker 1: and moving his head slowly from side to side, he announced,
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  Speaker 1: I am a draper. You're a draper. I thought you
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  Speaker 1: thought wrong, but it's bound to come up hens, attitude, habits.
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  Speaker 1: It's plain enough. I'm a draper's assistant, let out for
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  Speaker 1: a ten day's holiday. Just a draper's assistant. Not much?
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  Speaker 1: Is it? A counter jumper? A draper's assistant. Isn't a
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  Speaker 1: position to be ashamed of, she said, recovering and not
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  Speaker 1: quite understanding yet what all this meant? Yes, it is,
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  Speaker 1: he said, for a man in this country now to
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  Speaker 1: be just another man's hand as I am, to have
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  Speaker 1: to wear what clothes you are told, and go to
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  Speaker 1: church to please customers and work. There's no other kind
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  Speaker 1: of men stand such hours. A drunken bricklayer's a king
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  Speaker 1: to it. But why are you telling me this? Now?
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  Speaker 1: It's important you should know at once. But mister Benson,
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  Speaker 1: that isn't all. If you don't mind my speaking about
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  Speaker 1: myself a bit, there's a few things I'd like to
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  Speaker 1: tell you. I can't go on deceiving you. My name's
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  Speaker 1: not Benson. Why I told you Benson, I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: except that I'm a kind of fool. Well I wanted
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  Speaker 1: somehow to seem more than I was. My name's hoopdriver. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: And that about South Africa, and that lion Well lies lies,
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  Speaker 1: And the discovery of diamonds on the Ostrich farm lies too,
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  Speaker 1: and all the reminiscences of the giraffes lies too. I
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  Speaker 1: never wrote on no giraffes. I'd be afraid. He looked
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  Speaker 1: at her with a kind of sullen satisfaction. He had
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  Speaker 1: eased his conscience. Anyhow, she regarded him in infinite perplexity.
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  Speaker 1: This was a new sight altogether to the man. But why,
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  Speaker 1: she began, Why did I tell you such things? I
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  Speaker 1: don't know, silly sort of chap I expect. I suppose
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to impress you, But somehow now I want
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  Speaker 1: you to know the truth. Silence, breakfast, untouched. I thought
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  Speaker 1: i'd tell you, said mister Hoopdriver. I suppose it's snobbishness
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  Speaker 1: and all that kind of thing as much as anything.
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  Speaker 1: I lay awake pretty near all last night thinking about myself,
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  Speaker 1: thinking what a got up imitation of a man I was,
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  Speaker 1: and all that. And you haven't any diamond shares, and
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  Speaker 1: you're not going into parliament, and you're not all lies,
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  Speaker 1: said Hoopdriver in a sepulchral voice. Lies from beginning to end.
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  Speaker 1: How I came to tell em, I don't know. She
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  Speaker 1: stared at him blankly. I never set eyes on Africa
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  Speaker 1: in my life, said mister Hoopdriver, completing the confession. Then
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  Speaker 1: he pulled his right hand from his pocket and with
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  Speaker 1: a nonchalance of one to whom the bitterness of death
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  Speaker 1: is past, began to drink his coffee. It's a little surprising,
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  Speaker 1: began Jessie, vaguely. Think it over, said mister hoopdriver. I'm
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  Speaker 1: sorry from the bottom of my heart. And then breakfast
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  Speaker 1: proceeded in silence. Jessee ate very little and seemed lost
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  Speaker 1: in thought. Mister Hoopdriver was so overcome by contrition and
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  Speaker 1: anxiety that he consumed an extraordinarily large breakfast out of
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  Speaker 1: pure nervousness, and he ate his scrambled eggs for the
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  Speaker 1: most part with a spoon that belonged properly to the marmalade.
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  Speaker 1: His eyes were gloomily downcast. She glanced at him through
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  Speaker 1: her eyelashes once or twice. She struggled with laughter once
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  Speaker 1: or twice. She seemed to be indignant. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: what to think, she said at last, I don't know
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  Speaker 1: what to make of you, brother Chris, I thought, do
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: you know that you were perfectly honest and somehow well?
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  Speaker 1: I think so still honest? With all those lies? I
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: wonder I don't, said mister Hoopdriver. I'm fair ashamed of myself,
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  Speaker 1: but anyhow, I've stopped deceiving you. I thought, said the
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  Speaker 1: young lady in gray, that story of the lion. Lord said,
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  Speaker 1: mister hoopdriver, don't remind me of that. I thought, somehow
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  Speaker 1: I felt that the things you said didn't ring quite true.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: She suddenly broke out in laughter at the expression of
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: his face. Of course, you are honest, she said. How
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: could I ever doubt it? As if I had never pretended.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: I see it all now. Abruptly, she rose and extended
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: her hand across the breakfast things. He looked at her
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: doubtfully and saw the dancing friendliness in her eyes. He
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: scarcely understood it. First, he rose, holding the marmalade's spoon,
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  Speaker 1: and took her proffered hand with abject humility. Lord, he
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: broke out, if you aren't enough, but there I see
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: it all now. A brilliant inspiration had suddenly obscured her humor.
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  Speaker 1: She sat down suddenly, and he sat down too. You
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: did it, she said, because you wanted to help me,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: and you thought I was too conventional to take help
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  Speaker 1: from one I might think my social inferior. That was
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  Speaker 1: partly it, said mister hoopdriver. How you misunderstood me? She said,
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  Speaker 1: you don't mind. It was noble of you, But I
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: am sorry, she said. You should think me likely to
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: be ashamed of you, because you follow a decent trade.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't know at first, you see, said mister Hoopdriver.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: And he submitted meekly to a restoration of his self respect.
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  Speaker 1: He was as useful a citizen as could be. It
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  Speaker 1: was proposed and carried, and his lying was of the noblest.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: And so the breakfast concluded much more happily than his
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: brightest expectation, And they rode out of ruddy little Blandford
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  Speaker 1: as though no shadow of any sort had come between them.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty six. As they were sitting by the roadside
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  Speaker 1: among the pine trees, half way up a stretch of
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  Speaker 1: hill between Wimborne and Ringwood, however, mister Hoopdriver reopened the
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: question of his worldly position. You think, he began, abruptly,
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  Speaker 1: removing a meditative cigarette from his mouth. That a draper's
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: shopman is a decent citizen. Why not when he puts
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: people off with what they don't quite want? For instance,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: need he do that salesmanship? Said Hoopdriver. Wouldn't get a
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: crib if he didn't. It's no good you're arguing. It's
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  Speaker 1: not a particularly honest, nor a particularly useful trade. It's
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: not very high up. There's no freedom and no leisure.
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  Speaker 1: Seven to eight thirty every day in the week. Don't
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: leave much edge to live on, does it. Real workmen
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  Speaker 1: laugh at us, and educated chaps like bank clerks and
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: solicitors clerks look down on us. You look respectable outside,
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  Speaker 1: and inside you are packed in dormitories like convicts, fed
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  Speaker 1: on bread and butter, and bullied like slaves. You're just
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  Speaker 1: superior enough to feel that you're not superior. Without capital,
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  Speaker 1: there's no prospects. One draper in a hundred don't even
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  Speaker 1: earn enough to marry on. And if he does marry,
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  Speaker 1: his g V can just use him to black boots
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  Speaker 1: if he likes, and he daren't put his back up.
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  Speaker 1: That's drapery. And you tell me to be contented. Would
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  Speaker 1: you be contented if you was a shop girl? She
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: did not answer. She looked at him with distress in
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: her brown eyes, and he remained gloomily in possession of
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the field. Presently he spoke. I've been thinking, he said,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and stopped. She turned her face, resting her cheek on
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: the palm of her hand. There was a light in
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: her eyes that made the expression of them tender. Mister
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver had not looked in her face when he had talked.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: He had regarded the grass and pointed his remark with
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: red knuckled hands held open and palms upward. Now they
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: hung limply over his knees. Well, she said, I was
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: thinking it this morning, said mister Hoopdriver. Yes, of course
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: it's silly. Well, it's like this. I'm twenty three about
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I had my schooling all right to fifteen. Say, well,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: that leaves me eight years behind. Is it too late?
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: I wasn't so backward. I did algebra and Latin up
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: to auxiliary verbs and French genders. I got a kind
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: of grounding. And now you mean, should you go on working? Yes,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: said mister Hoopdriver. That's it. You can't do much at
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: drapery without capital, you know, But if I could get
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: really educated, I've thought sometimes, why not, said the young
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: lady in gray. Mister Hoopdriver was surprised to see it
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: in that light, you think, he said? Of course you
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: are a man, You are free, she warmed. I wish
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: I were you to have the chance of that struggle.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Am I man? Enough? Said mister hoopdriver aloud, but addressing himself.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: There's that eight years, he said to her. You can
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: make it up what you call educated men. They're not
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: going on. You can catch them. They are quite satisfied
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: playing golf and thinking of clever things to say to
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: women like my stepmother, and dining out. You're in front
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: of them already in one thing. They think they know
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: everything you don't, and they know such little things. Lord
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver, how you encourage a fellow? If I
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: could only help you, she said, and left an eloquent hiatus,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: He became pensive again. It's pretty evident you don't think
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: much of a draper, he said abruptly another interval. Hundreds
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: of men, she said, have come from the very lowest
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: ranks of life. There was Burns, a plowman, and Hugh Miller,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: a stonemason, and plenty of others. Dodsley was a footman,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: But drapers, we're too sort of shabby gin teel to rise.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Our coats and cuffs might get crumpled. Wasn't there a
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Clark who wrote Theology? He was a draper? There was
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: one started a sewing cotton, the only one I ever
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: heard tell of Have you ever read Heart's Insurgent? Never
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver. He did not wait for her context,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: but suddenly broke out with an account of his literary requirements.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: The fact is, I've read precious little one don't get
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: much of a chance. Situated as I am. We have
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: a library at business, and I've gone through that. Most
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: besant I've read, and a lot of Missus Bradden's and
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Brider Haggard and Marie Corelli and well and Auita or so.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: They're good stories, of course, and first class writers, but
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: they didn't seem to have much to do with me.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: But there's heaps of books. One here is talked about.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: I haven't read. Don't you read any other books? But
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: novels scarcely ever. One gets tired after business, and you
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: can't get the books. I have been to some extension lectures,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: of course, Elizabethan dramatists, it was, but it seemed a
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: little high flown, you know. And I went and did
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: wood carving at the same place. But it didn't seem
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: leading nowhere, and I cut my thumb and checked it.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: He made a depressing spectacle, with his face anxious and
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: his hands limp. It makes me sick, he said, to
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: think how I've been fooled with My old schoolmaster ought
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: to have a juiced hiding. He's a thief. He pretended
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: to undertake to make a man of me, and he
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: stole twenty three years of my life, filled me up
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: with scraps and sweepings. Here I am. I don't know
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: anything and I can't do anything, and the learning time
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: is over, is it? She said? But he did not
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: seem to hear her. My old people didn't know any better,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and went and paid thirty pounds premium thirty pounds down
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: to have me made this. The g V promised to
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: teach me the trade, and he never taught me anything
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: but to be a hand. It's the way they do
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: with drapers apprentices. If every swindler was locked up, well,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: you'd have nowhere to buy tape and cotton. It's all
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: very well to bring up Burns and those chaps, but
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I'm not that make yet. I'm not such a muck
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: that I might not have been better with teaching. I
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: wonder what the chaps who sneer and laugh at such
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: as me would be if they'd been fooled about as
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: I've been at twenty three. It's a long start, he
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: looked up with a wintry smile, a sadder and wiser
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: hoopdriver indeed than him of the glorious imaginings. It's you
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: done this, he said. You're real, and it sets me
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: thinking what I really am and what I might have been.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Suppose it was all different, Make it different? How work?
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Stop playing at life? Face it like a man ah hoopdriver,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: glancing at her out of the corners of his eyes.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: And even then, no, it's not much good. I'm beginning
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: too late. And there, in blankly thoughtful silence, that conversation ended.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: End of section thirteen. Recording by Patty Cunningham,