'They're both bitches, said Grimes, and added moodily, 'I'm engaged to be married to Flossie.
'Good God! Which is she?
'The elder. The boys call them Flossie and Dingy. We haven't told the old boy yet. I'm waiting till I land in the soup again. Then I shall play that as my last card. I generally get into the soup sooner or later. Here's the pub. Not such a bad little place in its way. Clutterbuck's father makes all the beer round here. Not bad stuff, either. Two pints, please, Mrs Roberts!
In the farther corner sat Philbrick, talking volubly in Welsh to a shady‑looking old man.
'Damned cheek his coming in here! said Grimes.
Mrs Roberts brought them their beer. Grimes took a long draught and sighed happily.
'This looks like being the first end of term I've seen for two years, he said dreamily. 'Funny thing, I can always get on all right for about six weeks, and then I land in the soup. I don't believe I was ever meant by Nature to be a schoolmaster. Temperament, said Grimes, with a faraway look in his eyes ‑ 'that's been my trouble, temperament and sex.
'Is it quite easy to get another job after ‑ after you've been in the soup? asked Paul.
'Not at first, it isn't, but there're ways. Besides, you see, I'm a public‑school man. That means everything. There's a blessed equity in the English social system, said Grimes, 'that ensures the public‑school man against starvation. One goes through four or five years of perfect hell at an age when life is bound to be hell, anyway, and after that the social system never lets one down.
'Not that I stood four or five years of it, mind; I got the push soon after my sixteenth birthday. But my housemaster was a public‑school man. He knew the system. "Grimes," he said, "I can't keep you in the House after what has happened. I have the other boys to consider. But I don't want to be too hard on you. I want you to start again." So he sat down there and then and wrote me a letter of recommendation to any future employer, a corking good letter, too. I've got it still. It's been very useful at one time or another. That's the public‑school system all over. They may kick you out, but they never let you down.