Pansies (Lawrence)/Prestige

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PRESTIGE
I never met a singlemiddle-class person whosenerves didn't tighten against meas if they'd got something to lose.
Though what it was, you can ask me:some mysterious sort of prestigethat was nothing to me; though they alwaysseemed to think I was laying it siege.
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It was something I never could fathom,that mysterious prestige which they allseemed to think they'd got, like a haloaround them, an invisible wall.
If you were willing to see itthey were only to eager to grantyou a similar glory, since you'd risento their levels, my holy aunt!
But never, no never could I see it,and so I could never feelthe proper unction about it,and it worried me a good deal.
For years and years it bothered methat I couldn't feel one of them,till at last I saw the reason:they were just a bloody sham.
As far as any superiorityor halo or prestige wentthey were just a bloody collective fraud,that was what their Ahem! meant.
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Their superiority was meanness,they were cunning about the goodsand sly with a lot of after-thought,and they put it over us, the duds!
And I'd let myself be swindledhalf believing 'em, till one dayI suddenly said: I've finished!My God, let me get away!

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