“A man is judged by what his uncle is. In this country, thank God, having respectable relations counts for a good deal, and so it should. You’re a Ridden and a Foliat, and I’m not going to have you messing an honoured name with wheel-grease because you’ve read some damned subversive rag which you’ve neither the sense to drop nor the wit to judge. There are some things which a man can do and keep his self-respect and be asked out to dinner, but going round with a spanner isn’t one of them.”
“I don’t ask to go round with a spanner, sir, nor to be asked out to dinner.”
“What do you ask, then?”
“I would like to learn engineering, sir, because I’ve always enjoyed engines and the application of power, and that sort of thing.”
“What do you call that but going round with a spanner? And how do you propose to learn engineering?”
“I hoped, sir, that you would let me go to an engineering works.”
“Engineering works be damned.”
“I don’t see it, sir. It’s the thing I should do best.”
“Well, I do see it, sir, and it’s the thing I won’t have.”
“But why not, sir? I should work at it. I shouldn’t disgrace you.”