Page 524 - sons-and-lovers

thing for Paul to offer Dawes a drink.
‘What’ll you have?’ he asked of him.
‘Nowt wi’ a bleeder like you!’ replied the man.
Paul turned away with a slight disdainful movement of
the shoulders, very irritating.
‘The aristocracy,’ he continued, ‘is really a military
institution. Take Germany, now. She’s got thousands of aris-
tocrats whose only means of existence is the army. They’re
deadly poor, and life’s deadly slow. So they hope for a war.
They look for war as a chance of getting on. Till there’s a war
they are idle good-for-nothings. When there’s a war, they
are leaders and commanders. There you are, then—they
WANT war!’
He was not a favourite debater in the public-house, being
too quick and overbearing. He irritated the older men by his
assertive manner, and his cocksureness. They listened in si-
lence, and were not sorry when he finished.
Dawes interrupted the young man’s flow of eloquence by
asking, in a loud sneer:
‘Did you learn all that at th’ theatre th’ other night?’
Paul looked at him; their eyes met. Then he knew Dawes
had seen him coming out of the theatre with Clara.
‘Why, what about th’ theatre?’ asked one of Paul’s as-
sociates, glad to get a dig at the young fellow, and sniffing
something tasty.
‘Oh, him in a bob-tailed evening suit, on the lardy-da!’
sneered Dawes, jerking his head contemptuously at Paul.
‘That’s comin’ it strong,’ said the mutual friend. ‘Tart an’
all?’