to
raise yourself to be the idol of a crowd that fancies itself canny!
Incredibly easy! I used to take their part against the works-manager
as often as I could; he was a fiend; he hated me; but then I was a
fiend, too, and I hated him more. I used often to come on at six in
the morning, when they did, and 'sign on'. It isn't really signing on
now at all; there's a clock dial and a whole machine for catching
you out. They loved to see me doing that. And I worked the lathes
sometimes, just for a bit, just to show that I wasn't ashamed to work.
Etc.... All that sentimental twaddle. It pleased them. And if any
really vigorous-minded girl had dared to say it was sentimental
twaddle, there would have been a crucifixion or something of the sort
in the cloak-rooms. The mob's always the same. But what pleased them
far more than anything was me knowing them by their Christian names.
Not all, of course; still, hundreds of them. Marvellous feats of
memorising I did! I used to go about muttering under my breath:
'Winnie, wart on left hand, Winnie, wart on left hand, wart on left
hand, Winnie.' You see? And I've sworn at them--not often; it wouldn't
do, naturally. But there was scarcely a woman there that I couldn't
simply blast in two seconds if I felt like it. On the other hand, I
assure you I could be very tender. I was surprised how tender I could
be, now and then, in my little office. They'd tell me anything--sounds
sentimental, but they would--and some of them had no more notion
that there's such a thing on earth as propriety than a monkey has. I
thought I knew everything before I went to the Clyde valley. Well,
I didn't." Concepcion looked at G.J. "You know you're very innocent,
G.J., compared to me."

"I should hope so!" said G.J., impenetrably.

"What do you think of it all?" she demanded in a fresh tone, leaning a
little towards him.

He replied: "I'm impressed."

He was, in fact, very profoundly impressed; but he had to illustrate
the hardness in himself which she had revealed to him. (He wondered
whether the members of the Lechford Committee really did credit him
with having dethroned a couple of chairmen. The idea was new to his
modesty. Perhaps he had been underestimating his own weight on the
committee. No doubt he had.) All constraint was now dissipated between
Concepcion and himself. They were behaving to each other as though
their intimacy had never been interrupted for a single week. She
amazed him, sitting t