Tom Brangwen meditated this.

“Maybe you was never broken in,” he said.

“No, I never was,” said Alfred proudly.

And Tom felt his elder brother despised him a little.

He winced under it.

“Everybody's got a way of their own,” he said, stubbornly. “It's only a dog as hasn't. An' them as can't take what they give an' give what they take, they must go by themselves, or get a dog as'll follow 'em.”

“They can do without the dog,” said his brother. And again Tom Brangwen was humble, thinking his brother was bigger than himself. But if he was, he was. And if it were finer to go alone, it was: he did not want to go for all that.