"Quite as bad. Worse if anything.... The only thing in careers that I
can fancy at the moment is art dealing--picking up nice things cheap and
selling them dear, you know. Only I should always want to keep them, of
course. If I don't do that I shall have to live by my needle. If they
pass the Sweated Industries Bill, I suppose one will get quite a lot.
It's the only Bill I've ever been interested in. My uncle was extremely
struck by the intelligent way I took notice of it, when I had
disappointed him so much about Tariff Reform and Education."
"You'd probably be among the unskilled millions whom the bill turns out
of work."
"Then I shall be unemployed, and march with a flag. I shall rather like
that.... Oh, I suppose somehow one manages to live, doesn't one, whether
one has a degree or not. And personally I'd rather not have one, because
it would be such a mortifying one. Besides," Peter added, after a
luminous moment of reflection, "I don't believe a degree really matters
much, in my profession. You didn't know I had a profession, I expect;
I've just thought of it. I'm going to be a buyer for the Ignorant Rich.
Make their houses liveable-in. They tell me what they want--I get hold
of it for them. Turn them out an Italian drawing-room--Della Robbia
mantel-piece, Florentine fire-irons, Renaissance ceiling, tapestries and
so on. Things they haven't energy to find for themselves or intelligence
to know when they see them. I love finding them, and I'm practised at
cheating. One has to cheat if one's poor but eager.... A poor trade,
but my own. I can grub about low shops all day, and go to sales at
Christie's. What fun."
Urquhart said, "You'd better begin on Leslie. You're exactly what he
wants."
"Who's Leslie?" Peter was eating buns and marmalade, in restored spirits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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