"You are well fixed up here," said Seagrave, "nice and comfortable I call it. Rum old place this, I often wonder what sort of a time those old dandies had in the Pavilion a century or more ago."
"Judging from what I have read, they must have been gay and festive," replied Jack. "They drank hard, and made love desperately then; we go about such things in a more decorous manner now."
"That's true, but is it a change for the better? Is secret debauchery an improvement on open profligacy?"
He was rather surprised to hear his companion talk in this strain, and said—
"You do not think the morals of the present generation are any better than they were in those days?"
"Not a bit, you've only to look at the papers to find that out. There is some fairly sultry reading in the Divorce Court cases."
"Granted," replied Jack, "but still I think on the whole we have become better mannered, and more circumspect, since the time of the Georges."
"Maybe, but with all the learning to be had at other people's expense, I don't think we have much to boast about. In my young days we had to learn to work almost before we learned to spell."
"It does not seem to have done you much harm."
"None at all, but I'd have been a tarnation sight more presentable if somebody had taken me in hand and licked me into shape."