with it? I've met men
what wouldn't last more than six weeks on a million. Then they'd starve
if nobody gave them another million. I'm not going to give my daughter
to one of that sort.

HIPPANTHIGH: I was third in the classical tripos at Cambridge, Mr.
Sladder.

SLADDER: I don't give a damn for classics; and I don't give a damn for
Cambridge; and I don't know what a tripos is. But all I can tell you is
that if I was fool enough to waste my time with classics, third
wouldn't[2] be good enough for me. No, Mr. Hippanthigh, you've chosen
the church as your job, and I've nothing to say against your choice; its
a free country, and I've nothing to say against your job; it's well
enough paid at the top, only you don't look like getting there. I chose
business as my job, there seemed more sense in it; but if I'd chosen the
Church, I shouldn't have stuck as a curate. No, nor a bishop either. I
wouldn't have had an archbishop ballyragging me and ordering me about.
No. I'd have got to the top, and drawn big pay, and _spent_ it.

HIPPANTHIGH: But, Mr. Sladder, I could be a vicar to-morrow if my
conscience would allow me to cease protesting against a certain point
which the bishop holds to be----

SLADDER: I know all about that. I don't care what it is that keeps you
on the bottom rung of the ladder. Conscience, you say. Well, it's a
different thing with every man. It's conscience with some, drink with
others, sheer stupidity with most. It's pretty crowded already, that
bottom rung, without me going and putting my daughter on it. Where do
you suppose I'd be now if I'd let my conscience get in my way? Eh?

HIPPANTHIGH: Mr. Sladder, I cannot alter my beliefs.

SLADDER: Nobody asks you to. I only ask you to leave the bishop alone.
He says one thing and you preach another whenever you get half a chance;
it's enough to break up any firm.

HIPPANTHIGH: Believing as I do that eternal punishment is incompatible
with----

SLADDER: Now, Mr. Hippanthigh, that's got to stop. I don't mind saying,
now that I've given you What For, that you don't seem a bad young
fellow: but my daughter's not going to marry on the bottom rung, and
there's an end of that.

HIPPANTHIGH: But, Mr. Sladder, can you bring yourself to believe in
anything so terrible as eternal punishment, so contrary to----

SLADDER: Me? No.

HIPPANTHIGH: Then, how can you ask me to?

SLADDER: That particular belief never happened to stand between me and
the top of the t