When men try to set new laws for themselves and get out of the ordinary, they are more than apt to make fools of themselves, and may do positive harm. What is it now?”

“Can’t you get over the ground any faster, John?” he cried, thrusting his head again out of the window. “These horses are overfed and lazy, like all the English people. Why was the machine out of order? Hicks is a fool — I say!” He put his hand inside his collar and pulled and worked it loose. “We are all hidebound here. Even our clothes choke us.”

“David, tell me the truth.”

“I am telling you the truth. I am a cad, I say. And you — you, too, are a part of the system that makes cads of us all.”