"And above all, I believed Sambo and Flip when they told me they were my benefactors. ... from Sambo's point of view I was a good speculation. He sank money in me, and ... I won him scholarships when the time came ... But it is difficult for a child to realize that a school is primarily a commercial venture. A child believes that the school exists to educate ... Flip and Sambo had chosen to befriend me, and their friendship included canings, reproaches and humiliations, which were good for me and saved me from an office stool. That was their version, and I believed in it. It was therefore clear that I owed them a vast debt of gratitude. But I was not grateful, as I very well knew. ... But it is wicked, is it not, to hate your benefactors?"
Mr & Mrs Wilkes, or Big Brother?