Naturally one did not notice or foresee the trend of
his unsettlement. Naturally it made plausible the excuses that he
made.
There he is, down there at the tutor's. He wanted to do war work,
not sitting there grinding lessons. All the tutor's pupils did.
Naturally they did. The boy couldn't go in the army. He was too
young. He was in a rural district. He got doing land-work. They
all did. It was supposed to be done in leisure hours. Naturally it
encroached on, and unfitted for, work hours. "After all," as the
tutor wrote, "how can you blame the boys? After all, it's very hard
to seem to try to check this patriotic spirit." After all! Oh, why
do people say "after all" when they mean quite the contrary? This
was before all, this seductive escape from uncongenial duties,
precedent of all, influencing to all that happened--after all.
Naturally it interfered with scholastic work. That was condoned.
As naturally it interfered with discipline. That was not mentioned
by the tutor. If he was cognisant of it was not domestic discipline
everywhere relaxed "on account of the war"?
There Huggo is. These are his holidays. After the setback at
Tidborough he was to have spent all his holidays at home. He was
not, for the future, to go away on invitations. That war! He never
spent any of his holidays at home. How could the boy be tied down
in London with this war on? He made his land-work his excuse, most
plausible.
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