No More Parades - Ford Madox Ford (the gingerbread man read aloud .TXT) 📗

She exclaimed:

“You! You! Isn’t it ignoble. That you should be at the beck and call of these ignoramuses. You!”

He went on explaining seriously that he was in no great danger⁠—in no danger at all unless he was sent back to his battalion. And he was not likely to be sent back to his battalion unless he disgraced himself or showed himself negligent where he was. That was unlikely. Besides his category was so low that he was not eligible for his battalion, which, of course, was in the line. She ought to understand that everyone that she saw employed there was physically unfit for the line. She said:

“That’s why they’re such an awful lot⁠ ⁠… It is not to this place that one should come to look for a presentable man⁠ ⁠… Diogenes with his lantern was nothing to it.”

He said:

“There’s that way of looking at it⁠ ⁠… It is quite true that most of⁠ ⁠… let’s say your friends⁠ ⁠… were killed off during the early days, or if they’re still going they’re in more active employments.” What she called presentableness was very largely a matter of physical fitness⁠ ⁠… The horse, for instance, that he rode was rather a crock⁠ ⁠… But though it was German and not thoroughbred it contrived to be up to his weight⁠ ⁠… Her friends, more or less, of before the war were professional soldiers or of the type. Well, they were gone: dead or snowed under. But on the other hand, this vast town full of crocks did keep the thing going, if it could be made to go. It was not they that hindered the show: if it was hindered, that was done by her much less presentable friends, the ministry who, if they were professionals at all, were professional boodlers.

She exclaimed with bitterness:

“Then why didn’t you stay at home to check them, if they are boodlers?” She added that the only people at home who kept social matters going at all with any life were precisely the more successful political professionals. When you were with them you would not know there was any war. And wasn’t that what was wanted? Was the whole of life to be given up to ignoble horseplay?⁠ ⁠… She spoke with increased rancour because of the increasing thump and rumble of the air-raid⁠ ⁠… Of course the politicians were ignoble beings that, before the war, you would not have thought of having in your house⁠ ⁠… But whose fault was that, if not that of the better classes, who had gone away leaving England a dreary wilderness of fellows without consciences or traditions or manners? And she added some details of the habits at a country house of a member of the Government whom she disliked. “And,” she finished up, “it’s your fault. Why aren’t you Lord Chancellor, or Chancellor of the Exchequer, instead of whoever is, for I am sure I don’t know? You could have been, with your abilities and your interests. Then things would have been efficiently and honestly conducted. If your brother Mark, with not a tithe of your abilities, can be a permanent head of a department, what could you not have risen to with your gifts, and your influence⁠ ⁠… and your integrity?” And she ended up: “Oh, Christopher!” on almost a sob.

Ex-Sergeant-Major Cowley, who had come back from the telephone, and during an interval in the thunderings, had heard some of Sylvia’s light cast on the habits of members of the home Government, so that his jaw had really hung down, now, in another interval, exclaimed:

“Hear, hear! Madam!⁠ ⁠… There is nothing the captain might not have risen to⁠ ⁠… He is doing the work of a brigadier now on the pay of an acting captain⁠ ⁠… And the treatment he gets is scandalous⁠ ⁠… Well, the treatment we all get is scandalous, tricked and defrauded as we are all at every turn⁠ ⁠… And look at this new start with the draft⁠ ⁠…” They had ordered the draft to be ready and countermanded it, and ordered it to be ready and countermanded it, until no one knew whether he stood on is ’ed or is ’eels⁠ ⁠… It was to have gone off last night: when they’d ’ad it marched down to the station they ’ad it marched back and told them all it would not be wanted for six weeks⁠ ⁠… Now it was to be got ready to go before daylight tomorrow morning in motor-lorries to the rail Ondekoeter way, the rail here ’aving been sabotaged!⁠ ⁠… Before daylight so that the enemy aeroplanes should not see it on the road⁠ ⁠… Wasn’t that a thing to break the ’arts of men and horderly rooms? It was outrageous. Did they suppose the ’Uns did things like that?

He broke off to say with husky enthusiasm of affection to Tietjens: “Look ’ere, old⁠ ⁠… I mean, sir⁠ ⁠… There’s no way of getting hold of an officer to march the draft. Them as are eligible gets to ’ear of what drafts is going and they’ve all bolted into their burries. Not a man of ’em will be back in camp before five tomorrow morning. Not when they ’ears there’s a draft to go at four of mornings like this⁠ ⁠… Now⁠ ⁠…” His voice became husky with emotion as he offered to take the draft hisself to oblige Captain Tietjens. And the captain knew he could get a draft off pretty near as good as himself: or very near. As for the draft-conducting major he lived in that hotel and he, Cowley, ’ad seen ’im. No four in the morning for ’im. He was going to motor to Ondekoeter Station about seven. So there was no sense in getting the draft off before five, and it was still dark then: too dark for the ’Un planes to see what was moving. He’d be glad if the captain would be up at the camp by five to take a final look and to sign any papers that only the commanding officer could sign. But he knew the captain had had