A Word Child Read Free Page A

whom the Civil Service abounds.
    â€˜ A table, à table! ’
    Talking of the pound, they followed me down the stairs in answer to Laura’s shout.
    â€˜Fancy French muck again, Hilary!’
    â€˜I sympathize with Wittgenstein who said he didn’t mind what he ate so long as it was always the same.’
    â€˜Hilary lives on baked beans when he isn’t here. What did you have for lunch today, Hilary?’
    â€˜Baked beans, of course.’
    â€˜Have some white wine, Hilary.’
    â€˜Just a smidget.’
    â€˜Are those boys at your place still smoking pot?’
    â€˜I don’t know what they do.’
    â€˜Another case of separation!’
    â€˜I must come and see them again,’ said Laura. ‘I’m writing another article. And I feel I might be able to help them somehow. All right, Hilary, no need to sneer!’
    Laura, as part of the latest exaltation, was attending lectures on sociology and writing intellectual women’s page journalism about ‘the young’.
    â€˜The young are so selfless and brave compared with us.’
    â€˜Yah.’
    â€˜I mean it, Hilary. They are brave. They take such big decisions and they don’t worry about money and status and they aren’t afraid to live in the present. They put their whole lives at risk for the sake of ideas and experience.’
    â€˜More fools they.’
    â€˜I’m sure you were fearfully anxious and careful when you were young, Hilary.’
    â€˜I thought about nothing but my exams.’
    â€˜There you are. When are you going to tell me about your childhood, Hilary?’
    â€˜Never.’
    â€˜Hilary is pathologically discreet.’
    â€˜In my view, the pound should not have been allowed to float,’ said Clifford Larr.
    â€˜With this crisis on we’ve decided to stay at home for Christmas.’
    â€˜You know so many languages, Hilary, but you never travel.’
    â€˜I think Hilary never leaves London.’
    â€˜I think he never leaves the perimeter of the royal parks.’
    â€˜Do you still run round Hyde Park every morning, Hilary?’
    â€˜What’s your view of the pound, Hilary?’
    â€˜That it should bash every other currency to pieces.’
    â€˜Hilary is so competitive and chauvinistic.’
    â€˜I love my country.’
    â€˜So old-fashioned.’
    â€˜If you sing Land of Hope and Glory, Freddie will sing Soviet Fatherland. ’
    â€˜Patriotism used to be taught in schools,’ said Clifford Larr.
    â€˜My school regarded patriotism as bad form,’ said Freddie.
    â€˜Eton is so bolshy,’ said Laura.
    â€˜The government will fall on price increases,’ said Clifford Larr.
    â€˜I’m fed up with hearing the proles binding about the price of meat,’ said Freddie.
    â€˜Why don’t they eat caviare.’
    â€˜Hilary has missed the point as usual.’
    â€˜They don’t have to eat beef all the time, we don’t.’
    â€˜They could live on beans, Hilary does.’
    â€˜Or pilchards. Or brown rice. Much healthier.’
    â€˜All right. I just don’t like Freddie’s vocabulary’
    â€˜Hilary is so combative.’
    â€˜Talking of proles, Hilary, I wish you’d tell Arthur Fisch not to let those drunks visit him at the office.’
    â€˜They aren’t drunks, they’re drug addicts.’
    â€˜But do you agree, Hilary?’
    â€˜I agree.’
    â€˜I mean, it won’t do.’
    â€˜Hilary, has Freddie told you about the office pantomime?’
    â€˜No, I haven’t told him. It’s to be Peter Pan. ’
    â€˜Oh no!’
    â€˜Don’t you like Peter Pan, Hilary?’
    â€˜It’s my favourite play.’
    â€˜Hilary thinks Freddie will desecrate it.’
    â€˜No need to ask who will play Hook and Mr Darling.’
    â€˜The director always bags the star part.’
    â€˜Freddie is an actor manqué. ’
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