OrientationsMaugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset)
General
Orientations
Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset)
Fiction; Short stories, English
The weather was cold and grey, and a drizzling rain was falling. Mr
Clinton did not take a 'bus, since by walking he could put in his pocket
the threepence which he meant to charge the firm for his fare. The
streets were wet and muddy, and people walked close against the houses
to avoid the splash of passing vehicles. Mr Clinton thought of the
jocose solicitor who was in the habit of taking an articled clerk with
him on muddy days, to walk on the outside of the street and protect his
master from the flying mud. The story particularly appealed to Mr
Clinton; that solicitor must have been a fine man of business. As he
walked leisurely along under his umbrella, Mr Clinton looked without
envy upon the city men who drove along in hansoms.
'Some of us,' he said, 'are born great, others achieve greatness. A man
like that'--he pointed with his mind's finger at a passing alderman--'a
man like that can go about in 'is carriage and nobody can say anything
against it. 'E's worked 'imself up from the bottom.'
But when he came down Parliament Street to Westminster Abbey he felt a
different atmosphere, and he was roused to Jeremiac indignation at the
sight, in a passing cab, of a gilded youth in an opera hat, with his
coat buttoned up to hide his dress clothes.
'That's the sort of young feller I can't abide,' said Mr Clinton. 'And
if I was a member of Parliament I'd stop it. That's what comes of 'aving
too much money and nothing to do. If I was a member of the aristocracy
I'd give my sons five years in an accountant's office. There's nothing
like a sound business training for making a man.' He paused in the road
and waved his disengaged hand. 'Now, what should I be if I 'adn't 'ad a
sound business training?'
Mr Clinton arrived at the mortuary, a gay red and white building, which
had been newly erected and consecrated by a duke with much festivity and
rejoicing. Mr Clinton was sworn with the other jurymen, and with them
repaired to see the bodies on which they were to sit. But Mr Clinton was
squeamish.
'I don't like corpses,' he said. 'I object to them on principle.'
He was told he must look at them.
'Very well,' said Mr Clinton. 'You can take a 'orse to the well but you
can't make 'im drink.' When it came to his turn to look through the pane
of glass behind which was the body, he shut his eyes.
'I can't say I'm extra gone on corpses,' he said, as they walked back to
the Court. 'The smell of them ain't what you might call
_eau-de-Cologne_.' The other jurymen laughed. Mr Clinton often said
witty things like that.
'Well, gentlemen,' said the coroner, rubbing his hands, 'we've only got
three cases this morning, so I sha'n't have to keep you long. And they
all seem to be quite simple.'
V
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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