Full text of "TheCompleteMemoirsOfGeorgeSherston"
See other formats
All Captains to regions infernal I consign with both gusto and zest: To Subalterns blankly uncivil, I pronounce as my final belief, That the man most akin to the "divvle" Is that fiend—the Commander-in-Chief. I could manage to be amused by that sort of artless intolerance; but when "about the second hour" he became disposed to speak disparagingly of Rivers, I realized that he was exceeding the limit. How much he knew about Rivers I didn't enquire. What he did was to imply that a subtly disintegrating influence was at work on my pacifist zealotry, and after these pre- liminaries he disclosed the plan which he had formu- lated for my liberation from the machinations of that uniformed pathologist. With all the goodwill in the world. Doctor Macamble advised me to abscond from Slateford. I had only to take a train to London, and once I was there he would arrange for me to be ex- amined by an "eminent alienist35 who would infalli- bly certify that I was completely normal and entirely responsible for my actions. The word "alienist55 was one of many whose exact meaning I had never iden- tified in the dictionary. (I dimly associated it with a celebrated Italian named Lombroso who probably wasn't an alienist at all.) Macamble's man, he ex- plained, was well known through his articles in the Press; but unfortunately it transpired that it was the popular rather than the pathological Press—the Daily Mail, in fact. I suppose I ought to have waxed indig- nant, but all I thought was, "Good Lord, he's trying to persuade me to do the dirty on Rivers!" Keeping this thought to myself, I remained reticent and parted from him with the heartiest of handshakes. Did I ever 650