' The blue-eyed man
lay back in his seat, and his head sank on his chest. He looked as if he
were going to sleep again, but on Hubert's asking him to explain his
troubles, he leaned across the table.
'Well, I'll tell yer. Yer be an eddicated man, and I likes to talk to them
that 'as 'ad an eddication. Yer says, and werry truly, just now, that
changing the stable don't change an 'orse into a hass, or a hass into an
'orse. That is werry true, most true, none but a eddicated man could 'ave
made that 'ere hobservation. I likes yer for it. Give us yer 'and. The
public just thinks too much of the stable, and not enough of what's inside.
Leastways that's my experience of the public, and I 'ave been a-catering
for the public ever since I was a growing lad--sides of bacon, ships on
fire, good old ship on fire.... I knows the public. Yer don't follow me?'
'Not quite.'
'A moment, and I'll explain. You'll admit there's no blooming reason except
the public's blooming hignorance why a man shouldn't do as good a picture
on the pavement as on a piece of canvas, provided he 'ave the blooming
genius. There is no doubt that with them 'ere chalks and a nice smooth
stone that Raphael--I 'ave been to the National Gallery and 'ave studied
'is work, and werry fine some of it is, although I don't altogether
hold--but that's another matter.
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