Decline and Fall

by Waugh Evelyn

CHAPTER V The Passing of a Public School Man

A day or two later Paul found himself next to Grimes in the quarry. When the warder was out of earshot Grimes said: 'Old boy, I can't stand this much longer. It just ain't good enough.

'I don't see any way out, said Paul. 'Anyway, it's quite bearable. I'd as soon be here as at Llanabba.

'Not so Grimes, said Grimes. 'He just languishes in captivity, like the lark. It's all right for you ‑ you like reading and thinking and all that. Well, I'm different, you know. I like drink and a bit of fun, and chatting now and then to my pals. I'm a sociable chap. It's turning me into a giddy machine, this life, and there's an awful chaplain, who gives me the pip, who keeps butting in in a breezy kind of way and asking if I feel I'm "right with God". Of course I'm not, and I tell him so. I can stand most sorts of misfortune, old boy, but I can't stand repression. That was what broke me up at Llanabba, and it's what going to break me up here, if I don't look out for myself. It seems to me it's time Grimes flitted off to another clime.

'No one has ever succeeded in escaping from this prison, said Paul.

'Well, just you watch next time there's a fog!

As luck would have it, there was a fog next day, a heavy impenetrable white mist which came up quite suddenly while they were at work, enveloping men and quarry in the way that mists do on Egdon Heath.

'Close up there, said the warder in charge. 'Stop work and close up. Look out there, you idiot! for Grimes had stumbled over the field‑telephone. 'If you've broken it you'll come up before the Governor to‑morrow.

'Hold this horse, said the other warder, handing the reins to Grimes.

He stooped and began to collect the chains on which the men were strung for their march home. Grimes seemed to be having some difficulty with the horse, which was plunging and rearing farther away from the squad. 'Can't you even hold a horse, said the warder. Suddenly Grimes, with remarkable agility considering his leg, was seen to be in the saddle riding away into the heath.