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after all! It’s not his private abode. I don’t see why I shouldn’t
sit there if I want to.’
’Quite!’ said Clifford. ‘He thinks too much of himself,
that man.’
’Do you think he does?’
’Oh, decidedly! He thinks he’s something exceptional.
You know he had a wife he didn’t get on with, so he joined
up in 1915 and was sent to India, I believe. Anyhow he was
blacksmith to the cavalry in Egypt for a time; always was
connected with horses, a clever fellow that way. Then some
Indian colonel took a fancy to him, and he was made a lieu-
tenant. Yes, they gave him a commission. I believe he went
back to India with his colonel, and up to the north-west
frontier. He was ill; he was a pension. He didn’t come out of
the army till last year, I believe, and then, naturally, it isn’t
easy for a man like that to get back to his own level. He’s
bound to flounder. But he does his duty all right, as far as
I’m concerned. Only I’m not having any of the Lieutenant
Mellors touch.’
’How could they make him an officer when he speaks
broad Derbyshire?’
’He doesn’t...except by fits and starts. He can speak per-
fectly well, for him. I suppose he has an idea if he’s come
down to the ranks again, he’d better speak as the ranks
speak.’
’Why didn’t you tell me about him before?’
’Oh, I’ve no patience with these romances. They’re the
ruin of all order. It’s a thousand pities they ever happened.’
Connie was inclined to agree. What was the good of dis-

1 Lady Chatterly’s Lover