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diff --git a/4216.txt b/4216.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c46ed5e --- /dev/null +++ b/4216.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3962 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Touch and Go, by D. H. Lawrence + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Touch and Go + +Author: D. H. Lawrence + +Release Date: July, 2003 [Etext# 4216] +Posting Dafe: January 30, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOUCH AND GO *** + + + + +Produced by Douglas Levy + + + + + +TOUCH AND GO + +A Play in Three Acts + + +By D. H. Lawrence + + + + +PREFACE + + +A nice phrase: "A People's Theatre." But what about it? There's no +such thing in existence as a People's Theatre: or even on the way to +existence, as far as we can tell. The name is chosen, the baby isn't +even begotten: nay, the would-be parents aren't married, nor yet +courting. + +A People's Theatre. Note the indefinite article. It isn't The People's +Theatre, but A People's Theatre. Not the theatre of Plebs, the +proletariat, but the theatre of A People. What people? Quel peuple +donc?--A People's Theatre. Translate it into French for yourself. + +A People's Theatre. Since we can't produce it, let us deduce it. +Major premise: the seats are cheap. Minor premiss: the plays are +good. Conclusion: A People's Theatre. How much will you give me for my +syllogism? Not a slap in the eye, I hope. + +We stick to our guns. The seats are cheap. That has a nasty proletarian +look about it. But appearances are deceptive. The proletariat isn't +poor. Everybody is poor except Capital and Labour. Between these upper +and nether millstones great numbers of decent people are squeezed. + +The seats are cheap: in decency's name. Nobody wants to swank, to sit +in the front of a box like a geranium on a window-sill--"the cynosure +of many eyes." Nobody wants to profiteer. We all feel that it is as +humiliating to pay high prices as to charge them. No man consents in +his heart to pay high prices unless he feels that what he pays with his +right hand he will get back with his left, either out of the pocket of +a man who isn't looking, or out of the envy of the poor neighbour who IS +looking, but can't afford the figure. The seats are cheap. Why should A +People, fabulous and lofty giraffe, want to charge or pay high +prices? If it were THE PEOPLE now.--But it isn't. It isn't Plebs, the +proletariat. The seats are cheap. + +The plays are good. Pah!--this has a canting smell. Any play is good +to the man who likes to look at it. And at that rate Chu Chin Chow is +extra-super-good. What about your GOOD plays? Whose good? PFUI to your +goodness! + +That minor premiss is a bad egg: it will hatch no bird. Good plays? You +might as well say mimsy bomtittle plays, you'd be saying as much. The +plays are--don't say good or you'll be beaten. The plays--the plays of +A People's Theatre are--oh heaven, what are they?--not popular nor +populous nor plebian nor proletarian nor folk nor parish plays. None of +that adjectival spawn. + +The only clue-word is People's for all that. A People's---Chaste word, +it will bring forth no adjective. The plays of A People's Theatre are +People's plays. The plays of A People's Theatre are plays about people. + +It doesn't look much, at first sight. After all--people! Yes, People! +Not THE PEOPLE, _i.e._ Plebs, nor yet the Upper Ten. People. Neither +Piccoli nor Grandi in our republic. People. + +People, ah God! Not mannequins. Not lords nor proletariats nor bishops +nor husbands nor co-respondents nor virgins nor adultresses nor uncles +nor noses. Not even white rabbits nor presidents. People. + +Men who are somebody, not men who are something. Men who HAPPEN to be +bishops or co-respondents, women who happen to be chaste, just as they +happen to freckle, because it's one of their innumerable odd qualities. +Even men who happen, by the way, to have long noses. But not noses on +two legs, not burly pairs of gaiters, stuffed and voluble, not +white meringues of chastity, not incarnations of co-respondence. Not +proletariats, petitioners, president's, noses, bits of fluff. Heavens, +what an assortment of bits! And aren't we sick of them! + +People, I say. And after all, it's saying something. It's harder to be +a human being than to be a president or a bit of fluff. You can be a +president, or a bit of fluff, or even a nose, by clockwork. Given +a role, a PART, you can play it by clockwork. But you can't have a +clockwork human being. + +We're dead sick of parts. It's no use your protesting that there is a +man behind the nose. We can't see him, and he can't see himself. Nothing +but nose. Neither can you make us believe there is a man inside the +gaiters. He's never showed his head yet. + +It may be, in real life, the gaiters wear the man, as the nose wears +Cyrano. It may be Sir Auckland Geddes and Mr. J. H. Thomas are only +clippings from the illustrated press. It may be that a miner is a +complicated machine for cutting coal and voting on a ballot-paper. It +may be that coal-owners are like the _petit bleu_ arrangement, a system +of vacuum tubes for whooshing Bradburys about from one to the other. + +It may be that everybody delights in bits, in parts, that the public +insists on noses, gaiters, white rabbits, bits of fluff, automata and +gewgaws. If they do, then let 'em. Chu Chin Chow for ever! + +In spite of them all: A People's Theatre. A People's Theatre shows men, +and not parts. Not bits, nor bundles of bits. A whole bunch of roles +tied into one won't make an individual. Though gaiters perish, we will +have men. + +Although most miners may be pick-cum-shovel-cum-ballot implements, +and no more, still, among miners there must be two or three living +individuals. The same among the masters. The majority are suction-tubes +for Bradburys. But is this Sodom of Industrialism there are surely ten +men, all told. My poor little withered grain of mustard seed, I am half +afraid to take you across to the seed-testing department! + +And if there are men, there is A People's Theatre. + +How many tragic situations did Goethe say were possible? Something like +thirty-two. Which seems a lot. Anyhow, granted that men are men still, +that not all of them are bits, parts, machine-sections, then we have +added another tragic possibility to the list: the Strike situation. As +yet no one tackles this situation. It is a sort of Medusa head, which +turns--no, not to stone, but to sloppy treacle. Mr. Galsworthy had a +peep, and sank down towards bathos. + +Granted that men are still men, Labour _v_. Capitalism is a tragic +struggle. If men are no more than implements, it is non-tragic and +merely disastrous. In tragedy the man is more than his part. Hamlet is +more than Prince of Denmark, Macbeth is more than murderer of Duncan. +The man is caught in the wheels of his part, his fate, he may be torn +asunder. He may be killed, but the resistant, integral soul in him is +not destroyed. He comes through, though he dies. He goes through with +his fate, though death swallows him. And it is in this facing of fate, +this going right through with it, that tragedy lies. Tragedy is not +disaster. It is a disaster when a cart-wheel goes over a frog, but it is +not a tragedy, not the hugest; not the death of ten million men. It is +only a cartwheel going over a frog. There must be a supreme STRUGGLE. + +In Shakespeare's time it was the people _versus_ king storm that was +brewing. Majesty was about to have its head off. Come what might, Hamlet +and Macbeth and Goneril and Regan had to see the business through. + +Now a new wind is getting up. We call it Labour _versus_ Capitalism. We +say it is a mere material struggle, a money-grabbing affair. But this +is only one aspect of it. In so far as men are merely mechanical, +the struggle is one which, though it may bring disaster and death to +millions, is no more than accident, an accidental collision of forces. +But in so far as men are men, the situation is tragic. It is not really +the bone we are fighting for. We are fighting to have somebody's head +off. The conflict is in pure, passional antagonism, turning upon the +poles of belief. Majesty was only _hors d'oevres_ to this tragic repast. + +So, the strike situation has this dual aspect. First it is a +mechanico-material struggle, two mechanical forces pulling asunder +from the central object, the bone. All it can result in is the pulling +asunder of the fabric of civilisation, and even of life, without any +creative issue. It is no more than a frog under a cart-wheel. The +mechanical forces, rolling on, roll over the body of life and squash it. + +The second is the tragic aspect. According to this view, we see more +than two dogs fighting for a bone, and life hopping under the Juggernaut +wheel. The two dogs are making the bone a pretext for a fight with each +other. That old bull-dog, the British capitalist, has got the bone in +his teeth. That unsatisfied mongrel, Plebs, the proletariat, shivers +with rage not so much at the sight of the bone, as at sight of the great +wrinkled jowl that holds it. There is the old dog, with his knowing look +and his massive grip on the bone: and there is the insatiable mongrel, +with his great splay paws. The one is all head and arrogance, the other +all paws and grudge. The bone is only the pretext. A first condition of +the being of Bully is that he shall hate the prowling great paws of the +Plebs, whilst Plebs by inherent nature goes mad at the sight of Bully's +jowl. "Drop it!" cries Plebs. "Hands off!" growls Bully. It is hands +against head, the shambling, servile body in a rage of insurrection at +last against the wrinkled, heavy head. + +Labour not only wants his debt. He wants his pound of flesh. It is a +quandary. In our heart of hearts we must admit the debt. We must admit +that it is long overdue. But this last condition! In vain we study our +anatomy to see which part we can best spare. + +Where is our Portia, to save us with a timely quibble? We've plenty of +Portias. They've recited their heads off--"The quality of mercy is not +strained." But the old Shylock of the proletariat persists. He pops up +again, and says, "All right, I can't have my pound of flesh with the +blood. But then you can't keep my pound of flesh with your blood--you +owe it to me. It is your business to deliver the goods. Deliver it +then--with or without blood--deliver it." The Portia scratches her head, +and thinks again. + +What's the solution? There is no solution. But still there is a choice. +There's a choice between a mess and a tragedy. If Plebs and Bully hang +on one to each end of the bone, and pull for grim life, they will +at last tear the bone to atoms: in short, destroy the whole material +substance of life, and so perish by accident, no better than a frog +under the wheel of destiny. That may be a disaster, but it is only a +mess for all that. + +On the other hand, if they have a fight to fight they might really drop +the bone. Instead of wrangling the bone to bits they might really go +straight for one another. They are like hostile parties on board a ship, +who both proceed to scuttle the ship so as to sink the other party. Down +goes the ship, with all the bally lot on board. A few survivors swim and +squeal among the bubbles--and then silence. + +It is too much to suppose that the combatants will ever drop the +obvious old bone. But it is not too much to imagine that some men might +acknowledge the bone to be merely a pretext, and hollow _casus belli_. +If we really could know what we were fighting for, if we if we could +deeply believe in what we were fighting for, then the struggle might +have dignity, beauty, satisfaction for us. If it were a profound +struggle for something that was coming to life in us, a struggle that +we were convinced would bring us to a new freedom, a new life, then it +would be a creative activity, a creative activity in which death is a +climax in the progression towards new being. And this is tragedy. + +Therefore, if we could but comprehend or feel the tragedy in the great +Labour struggle, the intrinsic tragedy of having to pass through death +to birth, our souls would still know some happiness, the very happiness +of creative suffering. Instead of which we pile accident on accident, +we tear the fabric of our existence fibre by fibre, we confidently look +forward to the time when the whole great structure will come down on our +heads. Yet after all that, when we are squirming under the debris, we +shall have no more faith or hope or satisfaction than we have now. We +shall crawl from under one cart-wheel straight under another. + +The essence of tragedy, which is creative crisis, is that a man should +go through with his fate, and not dodge it and go bumping into an +accident. And the whole business of life, at the great critical periods +of mankind, is that men should accept and be one with their tragedy. +Therefore we should open our hearts. For one thing we should have a +People's Theatre. Perhaps it would help us in this hour of confusion +better than anything. + +HERMITAGE, + +June, 1919. + + + + +CHARACTERS + + + GERALD BARLOW. + MR. BARLOW (his father). + OLIVER TURTON. + JOB ARTHUR FREER. + WILLIE HOUGHTON. + ALFRED BREFFITT. + WILLIAM (a butler). + CLERKS, MINERS, etc. + ANABEL WRATH. + MRS. BARLOW. + WINIFRED BARLOW. + EVA (a maid). + + + + + +TOUCH AND GO + + + + +ACT I + + +SCENE I + + Sunday morning. Market-place of a large mining village in the + Midlands. A man addressing a small gang of colliers from the + foot of a stumpy memorial obelisk. Church bells heard. + Churchgoers passing along the outer pavements. + + +WILLIE HOUGHTON. What's the matter with you folks, as I've told you +before, and as I shall keep on telling you every now and again, though +it doesn't make a bit of difference, is that you've got no idea of +freedom whatsoever. I've lived in this blessed place for fifty years, +and I've never seen the spark of an idea, nor of any response to an +idea, come out of a single one of you, all the time. I don't know what +it is with colliers--whether it's spending so much time in the bowels +of the earth--but they never seem to be able to get their thoughts above +their bellies. If you've got plenty to eat and drink, and a bit over to +keep the missis quiet, you're satisfied. I never saw such a satisfied +bloomin' lot in my life as you Barlow & Wasall's men are, really. Of +course you can growse as well as anybody, and you do growse. But you +don't do anything else. You're stuck in a sort of mud of contentment, +and you feel yourselves sinking, but you make no efforts to get out. You +bleat a bit, like sheep in a bog--but you like it, you know. You like +sinking in--you don't have to stand on your own feet then. + +I'll tell you what'll happen to you chaps. I'll give you a little +picture of what you'll be like in the future. Barlow & Walsall's 'll +make a number of compounds, such as they keep niggers in in South +Africa, and there you'll be kept. And every one of you'll have a little +brass collar round his neck, with a number on it. You won't have names +any more. And you'll go from the compound to the pit, and from the +pit back again to the compound. You won't be allowed to go outside the +gates, except at week-ends. They'll let you go home to your wives on +Saturday nights, to stop over Sunday. But you'll have to be in again +by half-past nine on Sunday night; and if you're late, you'll have your +next week-end knocked off. And there you'll be--and you'll be quite +happy. They'll give you plenty to eat, and a can of beer a day, and a +bit of bacca--and they'll provide dominoes and skittles for you to play +with. And you'll be the most contented set of men alive.--But you won't +be men. You won't even be animals. You'll go from number one to number +three thousand, a lot of numbered slaves--a new sort of slaves--- + +VOICE. An' wheer shall thee be, Willie? + +WILLIE. Oh, I shall be outside the palings, laughing at you. I shall +have to laugh, because it'll be your own faults. You'll have nobody but +yourself to thank for it. You don't WANT to be men. You'd rather NOT be +free--much rather. You're like those people spoken of in Shakespeare: +"Oh, how eager these men are to be slaves!" I believe it's +Shakespeare--or the Bible--one or the other--it mostly is--- + +ANABEL WRATH (she was passing to church). It was Tiberius. + +WILLIE. Eh? + +ANABEL. Tiberius said it. + +WILLIE. Tiberius!--Oh, did he? (Laughs.) Thanks! Well, if Tiberius said +it, there must be something in it, and he only just missed being in the +Bible anyway. He was a day late, or they'd have had him in. "Oh, how +eager these men are to be slaves!"--It's evident the Romans deserved all +they got from Tiberius--and you'll deserve all you get, every bit of +it. But don't you bother, you'll get it. You won't be at the mercy +of Tiberius, you'll be at the mercy of something a jolly sight worse. +Tiberius took the skin off a few Romans, apparently. But you'll have +the soul taken out of you--every one of you. And I'd rather lose my skin +than my soul, any day. But perhaps you wouldn't. + +VOICE. What art makin' for, Willie? Tha seems to say a lot, but tha goes +round it. Tha'rt like a donkey on a gin. Tha gets ravelled. + +WILLIE. Yes, that's just it. I am precisely like a donkey on a gin--a +donkey that's trying to wind a lot of colliers up to the surface. +There's many a donkey that's brought more colliers than you up to see +daylight, by trotting round.--But do you want to know what I'm making +for? I can soon tell you that. You Barlow & Wasall's men, you haven't a +soul to call your own. Barlow & Wasall's have only to say to one of you, +Come, and he cometh, Go, and he goeth, Lie VOICE. Ay--an' what about it? +Tha's got a behind o' thy own, hasn't yer? + +WILLIE. Do you stand there and ask me what about it, and haven't the +sense to alter it? Couldn't you set up a proper Government to-morrow, if +you liked? Couldn't you contrive that the pits belonged to you, instead +of you belonging to the pits, like so many old pit-ponies that stop down +till they are blind, and take to eating coal-slack for meadow-grass, not +knowing the difference? If only you'd learn to think, I'd respect you. +As you are, I can't, not if I try my hardest. All you can think of is +to ask for another shilling a day. That's as far as your imagination +carries you. And perhaps you get sevenpence ha'penny, but pay for it +with half-a-crown's worth of sweat. The masters aren't fools--as you +are. They'll give you two-thirds of what you ask for, but they'll get +five-thirds of it back again--and they'll get it out of your flesh and +blood, too, in jolly hard work. Shylock wasn't in it with them. He only +wanted a pound of flesh. But you cheerfully give up a pound a week, each +one of you, and keep on giving it up.--But you don't seem to see these +things. You can't think beyond your dinners and your 'lowance. You think +if you can get another shilling a day you're set up. You make me tired, +I tell you. + +JOB ARTHUR FREER. We think of others besides ourselves. + +WILLIE. Hello, Job Arthur--are you there? I didn't recognise you without +your frock-coat and silk hat--on the Sabbath.--What was that you said? +You think of something else, besides yourselves?--Oh ay--I'm glad to +hear it. Did you mean your own importance? + + + (A motor car, GERALD BARLOW driving, OLIVER TURTON with him has + pulled up.) + + +JOB ARTHUR (glancing at the car). No, I didn't. + +WILLIE. Didn't you, though?--Come, speak up, let us have it. The more +the merrier. You were going to say something. + +JOB ARTHUR. Nay, you were doing the talking. + +WILLIE. Yes, so I was, till you interrupted, with a great idea on the +tip of your tongue. Come, spit it out. No matter if Mr. Barlow hears +you. You know how sorry for you we feel, that you've always got to make +your speeches twice--once to those above, and once to us here below I +didn't meant the angels and the devils, but never mind. Speak up, Job +Arthur. + +JOB ARTHUR. It's not everybody as has as much to say as you, Mr. +Houghton. + +WILLIE. No, not in the open--that's a fact. Some folks says a great deal +more, in semi-private. You were just going to explain to me, on +behalf of the men, whom you so ably represent and so wisely lead, Job +Arthur--we won't say by the nose--you were just going to tell me--on +behalf of the men, of course, not of the masters--that you think of +others, besides yourself. Do you mind explaining WHAT others? + +JOB ARTHUR. Everybody's used to your talk, Mr. Houghton, and for that +reason it doesn't make much impression. What I meant to say, in plain +words, was that we have to think of what's best for everybody, not only +of ourselves. + +WILLIE. Oh, I see. What's best for everybody! I see! Well, for myself, +I'm much obliged--there's nothing for us to do, gentlemen, but for all +of us to bow acknowledgments to Mr. Job Arthur Freer, who so kindly has +ALL our interests at heart. + +JOB ARTHUR. I don't profess to be a red-rag Socialist. I don't pretend +to think that if the Government had the pits it would be any better for +us. No. What I mean is, that the pits are there and every man on this +place depends on them, one way or another. They're the cow that gives +the milk. And what I mean is, how every man shall have a proper share +of the milk, which is food and living. It's like killing the goose that +laid the golden egg. I want to keep the cow healthy and strong. And the +cow is the pits, and we're the men that depend on the pits. + +WILLIE. Who's the cat that's going to lick the cream? + +JOB ARTHUR. My position is this--and I state it before masters and +men--that it's our business to strike such a balance between the +interests of the men and the interests of the masters that the pits +remain healthy, and everybody profits. + +WILLIE. You're out for the millennium, I can see--with Mr. Job Arthur +Freer striking the balance. We all see you, Job Arthur, one foot on +either side of the fence, balancing the see-saw, with masters at one +end and men at the other. You'll have to give one side a lot of +pudding.--But go back a bit, to where we were before the motor car took +your breath away. When you said, Job Arthur, that you think of others +besides yourself, didn't you mean, as a matter of fact, the office men? +Didn't you mean that the colliers, led--we won't mention noses--by you, +were going to come out in sympathy with the office clerks, supposing +they didn't get the rise in wages which they've asked for--the office +clerks? Wasn't that it? + +JOB ARTHUR. There's been some talk among the men of standing by the +office. I don't know what they'll do. But they'll do it of their own +decision, whatever it is. + +WILLIE. There's not a shadow of doubt about it, Job Arthur. But it's a +funny thing the decisions all have the same foxy smell about them, Job +Arthur. + +OLIVER TURTON (calling from the car). What was the speech about, in the +first place? + +WILLIE. I beg pardon? + +OLIVER. What was the address about, to begin with? + +WILLIE. Oh, the same old hat--Freedom. But partly it's given to +annoy the Unco Guid, as they pass to their Sabbath banquet of +self-complacency. + +OLIVER. What ABOUT Freedom? + +WILLIE. Very much as usual, I believe. But you should have been here ten +minutes sooner, before we began to read the lessons. (Laughs.) + +ANABEL W. (moving forward, and holding out her hand). You'd merely have +been told what Freedom ISN'T; and you know that already. How are you, +Oliver? + +OLIVER. Good God, Anabel!--are you part of the meeting? How long have +you been back in England? + +ANABEL. Some months, now. My family have moved here, you know. + +OLIVER. Your family! Where have they moved from?--from the moon? + +ANABEL. No, only from Derby.--How are you, Gerald? + + +(GERALD twists in his seat to give her his hand.) + + +GERALD. I saw you before. + +ANABEL. Yes, I know you did. + + + (JOB ARTHUR has disappeared. The men disperse sheepishly into groups, + to stand and sit on their heels by the walls and the causeway + edge. WILLIE HOUGHTON begins to talk to individuals.) + + +OLIVER. Won't you get in and drive on with us a little way? + +ANABEL. No, I was going to church. + +OLIVER. Going to church! Is that a new habit? + +ANABEL. Not a habit. But I've been twice since I saw you last. + +OLIVER. I see. And that's nearly two years ago. It's an annual thing, +like a birthday? + +ANABEL. No. I'll go on, then. + +OLIVER. You'll be late now. + +ANABEL. Shall I? It doesn't matter. + +OLIVER. We are going to see you again, aren't we? + +ANABEL (after a pause). Yes, I hope so, Oliver. + +OLIVER. How have you been these two years--well?--happy? + +ANABEL. No, neither. How have you? + +OLIVER. Yes, fairly happy. Have you been ill? + +ANABEL. Yes, in France I was very ill. + +OLIVER. Your old neuritis? + +ANABEL. No. My chest. Pneumonia--oh, a complication. + +OLIVER. How sickening! Who looked after you? Is it better? + +ANABEL. Yes, it's a great deal better. + +OLIVER. But, Anabel--we must fix a meeting. I say, wait just a moment. +Could I call on your people? Go into town with me one day. I don't know +whether Gerald intends to see you--whether he intends to ask you to +Lilley Close. + +GERALD. Oh, it's all right. + +ANABEL. He's no need. I'm fixed up there already. + +GERALD. What do you mean? + +ANABEL. I am at Lilley Close every day--or most days--to work with your +sister Winifred in the studio. + +GERALD. What?--why, how's that? + +ANABEL. Your father asked me. My father was already giving her some +lessons. + +GERALD. And you're at our house every day? + +ANABEL. Most days. + +GERALD. Well, I'm--well, I'll be--you managed it very sharp, didn't you? +I've only been away a fort-night. + +ANABEL. Your father asked me--he offered me twelve pounds a month--I +wanted to do something. + +GERALD. Oh yes, but you didn't hire yourself out at Lilley Close as a +sort of upper servant just for twelve pounds a month. + +ANABEL. You're wrong--you're wrong. I'm not a sort of upper servant at +all--not at all. + +GERALD. Oh, yes, you are, if you're paid twelve pounds a month--three +pounds a week. That's about what father's sick-nurse gets, I believe. +You don't do it for twelve pounds a month. You can make twelve pounds +in a day, if you like to work at your little models: I know you can sell +your statuette things as soon as you make them. + +ANABEL. But I CAN'T make them. I CAN'T make them. I've lost the +spirit--the--_joi de vivre_--I don't know what, since I've been ill. I +tell you I've GOT to earn something. + +GERALD. Nevertheless, you won't make me believe, Anabel, that you've +come and buried yourself in the provinces--SUCH provinces--just to earn +father's three pounds a week. Why don't you admit it, that you came back +to try and take up the old threads. + +OLIVER. Why not, Gerald? Don't you think we ought to take up the old +threads? + +GERALD. I don't think we ought to be left without choice. I don't think +Anabel ought to come back and thrust herself on me--for that's what it +amounts to, after all--when one remembers what's gone before. + +ANABEL. I DON'T thrust myself on you at all. I know I'm a fool, a fool, +to come back. But I wanted to. I wanted to see you again. Now I know +I've presumed. I've made myself CHEAP to you. I wanted to--I wanted to. +And now I've done it, I won't come to Lilley Close again, nor anywhere +where you are. Tell your father I have gone to France again--it will be +true. + +GERALD. You play tricks on me--and on yourself. You know you do. You +do it for the pure enjoyment of it. You're making a scene here in this +filthy market-place, just for the fun of it. You like to see these +accursed colliers standing eyeing you, and squatting on their heels. You +like to catch me out, here where I'm known, where I've been the object +of their eyes since I was born. This is a great _coup de main_ for you. +I knew it the moment I saw you here. + +OLIVER. After all, we ARE making a scene in the market-place. Get in, +Anabel, and we'll settle the dispute more privately. I'm glad you came +back, anyhow. I'm glad you came right down on us. Get in, and let us run +down to Whatmore. + +ANABEL. No, Oliver. I don't want to run down to Whatmore. I wanted to +see you--I wanted to see Gerald--and I've seen him--and I've heard +him. That will suffice me. We'll make an end of the scene in the +market-place. (She turns away.) + +OLIVER. I knew it wasn't ended. I knew she would come back and tell us +she'd come. But she's done her bit--now she'll go again. My God, what a +fool of a world!--You go on, Gerald--I'll just go after her and see it +out. (Calls.) One moment, Anabel. + +ANABEL (calling). Don't come, Oliver. (Turns.) + +GERALD. Anabel! (Blows the horn of the motor car violently and +agitatively--she looks round--turns again as if frightened.) God damn +the woman! (Gets down from the car.) Drive home for me, Oliver. + + +(Curtain.) + + + +SCENE II + + WINIFRED'S studio at Lilley Close. ANABEL and WINIFRED working + at a model in clay. + + +WINIFRED. But isn't it lovely to be in Paris, and to have exhibitions, +and to be famous? + +ANABEL. Paris WAS a good place. But I was never famous. + +WINIFRED. But your little animals and birds were famous. Jack said so. +You know he brought us that bronze thrush that is singing, that is in +his room. He has only let me see it twice. It's the loveliest thing I've +ever seen. Oh, if I can do anything like that!--I've worshipped it, I +have. It is your best thing? + +ANABEL. One of the best. + +WINIFRED. It must be. When I see it, with its beak lifted, singing, +something comes loose in my heart, and I feel as if I should cry, and +fly up to heaven. Do you know what I mean? Oh, I'm sure you do, or you +could never have made that thrush. Father is so glad you've come to show +me how to work. He says now I shall have a life-work, and I shall be +happy. It's true, too. + +ANABEL. Yes, till the life-work collapses. + +WINIFRED. Oh, it can't collapse. I can't believe it could collapse. Do +tell me about something else you made, which you loved--something you +sculpted. Oh, it makes my heart burn to hear you!--Do you think I might +call you Anabel? I should love to. You do call me Winifred already. + +ANABEL. Yes, do. + +WINIFRED. Won't you tell me about something else you made--something +lovely? + +ANABEL. Well, I did a small kitten--asleep--with its paws crossed. You +know, Winifred, that wonderful look that kittens have, as if they were +blown along like a bit of fluff--as if they weighed nothing at all, just +wafted about--and yet so ALIVE--do you know---? + +WINIFRED. Darlings--darlings--I love them! + +ANABEL. Well my kitten really came off--it had that quality. It looked +as if it had just wafted there. + +WINIFRED. Oh, yes!--oh, I know! And was it in clay? + +ANABEL. I cut it in soft grey stone as well. I love my kitten. An +Armenian bought her. + +WINIFRED. And where is she now? + +ANABEL. I don't know--in Armenia, I suppose, if there is such a place. +It would have to be kept under glass, because the stone wouldn't +polish--and I didn't want it polished. But I dislike things under +glass--don't you? + +WINIFRED. Yes, I do. We had a golden clock, but Gerald wouldn't have the +glass cover, and Daddy wouldn't have it without. So now the clock is in +father's room. Gerald often went to Paris. Oliver used to have a studio +there. I don't care much for painting, do you? + +ANABEL. No. I want something I can touch, if it's something outside me. + +WINIFRED. Yes, isn't it wonderful, when things are substantial. Gerald +and Oliver came back yesterday from Yorkshire. You know we have a +colliery there. + +ANABEL. Yes, I believe I've heard. + +WINIFRED. I want to introduce you to Gerald, to see if you like him. +He's good at the bottom, but he's very overbearing and definite. + +ANABEL. Is he? + +WINIFRED. Terribly clever in business. He'll get awfully rich. + +ANABEL. Isn't he rich enough already? + +WINIFRED. Oh, yes, because Daddy is rich enough, really. I think if +Gerald was a bit different, he'd be really nice. Now he's so MANAGING. +It's sickening. Do you dislike managing people, Anabel? + +ANABEL. I dislike them extremely, Winifred. + +WINIFRED. They're such a bore. + +ANABEL. What does Gerald manage? + +WINIFRED. Everything. You know he's revolutionised the collieries and +the whole Company. He's made a whole new thing of it, so MODERN. Father +says he almost wishes he'd let it die out--let the pits be closed. But +I suppose things MUST be modernised, don't you think? Though it's very +unpeaceful, you know, really. + +ANABEL. Decidedly unpeaceful, I should say. + +WINIFRED. The colliers work awfully hard. The pits are quite wonderful +now. Father says it's against nature--all this electricity and so on. +Gerald adores electricity. Isn't it curious? + +ANABEL. Very. How are you getting on? + +WINIFRED. I don't know. It's so hard to make things BALANCE as if they +were alive. Where IS the balance in a thing that's alive? + +ANABEL. The poise? Yes, Winifred--to me, all the secret of life is in +that--just the--the inexpressible poise of a living thing, that makes +it so different from a dead thing. To me it's the soul, you know--all +living things have it--flowers, trees as well. It makes life always +marvellous. + +WINIFRED. Ah, yes!--ah, yes! If only I could put it in my model. + +ANABEL. I think you will. You are a sculptor, Winifred.--Isn't there +someone there? + +WINIFRED (running to the door). Oh, Oliver! + +OLIVER. Hello, Winnie! Can I come in? This is your sanctum: you can keep +us out if you like. + +WINIFRED. Oh, no. Do you know Miss Wrath, Oliver? She's a famous +sculptress. + +OLIVER. Is she? We have met.--Is Winifred going to make a sculptress, do +you think? + +ANABEL. I do. + +OLIVER. Good! I like your studio, Winnie. Awfully nice up here over the +out-buildings. Are you happy in it? + +WINIFRED. Yes, I'm perfectly happy--only I shall NEVER be able to make +real models, Oliver--it's so difficult. + +OLIVER. Fine room for a party--Give us a studio party one day, Win, and +we'll dance. + +WINIFRED (flying to him). Yes, Oliver, do let us dance. What shall we +dance to? + +OLIVER. Dance?--Dance _Vigni-vignons_--we all know that. Ready? + +WINIFRED. Yes. + + +(They begin to sing, dancing meanwhile, in a free little ballet-manner, +a wine-dance, dancing separate and then together.) + + + De terre en vigne, + La voila la jolie vigne, + Vigni-vignons--vignons le vin, + La voila la jolie vigne au vin, + La voila la jolie vigne. + + +OLIVER. Join in--join in, all. + + +(ANABEL joins in; the three dance and move in rhythm.) + + +WINIFRED. I love it--I love it! Do _Ma capote a trois boutons_--you know +it, don't you, Anabel? Ready--now--- + + +(They begin to dance to a quick little march-rhythm, all singing and + dancing till they are out of breath.) + + +OLIVER. Oh!--tired!--let us sit down. + +WINIFRED. Oliver!--oh, Oliver!--I LOVE you and Anabel. + +OLIVER. Oh, Winifred, I brought you a present--you'll love me more now. + +WINIFRED. Yes, I shall. Do give it me. + +OLIVER. I left it in the morning-room. I put it on the mantel-piece for +you. + +WINIFRED. Shall I go for it? + +OLIVER. There it is, if you want it. + +WINIFRED. Yes--do you mind? I won't be long. (Exit.) + +OLIVER. She's a nice child. + +ANABEL. A VERY nice child. + +OLIVER. Why did you come back, Anabel? + +ANABEL. Why does the moon rise, Oliver? + +OLIVER. For some mischief or other, so they say. + +ANABEL. You think I came back for mischief's sake? + +OLIVER. Did you? + +ANABEL. No. + +OLIVER. Ah! + +ANABEL. Tell me, Oliver, how is everything now?--how is it with +you?--how is it between us all? + +OLIVER. How is it between us all?--How ISN'T it, is more the mark. + +ANABEL. Why? + +OLIVER. You made a fool of us. + +ANABEL. Of whom? + +OLIVER. Well--of Gerald particularly--and of me. + +ANABEL. How did I make a fool of you, Oliver? + +OLIVER. That you know best, Anabel. + +ANABEL. No, I don't know. Was it ever right between Gerald and me, all +the three years we knew each other--we were together? + +OLIVER. Was it all wrong? + +ANABEL. No, not all. But it was terrible. It was terrible, Oliver. You +don't realise. You don't realise how awful passion can be, when it never +resolves, when it never becomes anything else. It is hate, really. + +OLIVER. What did you want the passion to resolve into? + +ANABEL. I was blinded--maddened. Gerald stung me and stung me till I +was mad. I left him for reason's sake, for sanity's sake. We should have +killed one another. + +OLIVER. You, stung him, too, you know--and pretty badly, at the last: +you dehumanised him. + +ANABEL. When? When I left him, you mean? + +OLIVER. Yes, when you went away with that Norwegian--playing your game a +little too far. + +ANABEL. Yes, I knew you'd blame me. I knew you'd be against me. But +don't you see, Oliver, you helped to make it impossible for us. + +OLIVER. Did I? I didn't intend to. + +ANABEL. Ha, ha, Oliver! Your good intentions! They are too good to +bear investigation, my friend. Ah, but for your good and friendly +intentions--- + +OLIVER. You mean my friendship with Gerald went against you? + +ANABEL. Yes. And your friendship with me went against Gerald. + +OLIVER. So I am the devil in the piece. + +ANABEL. You see, Oliver, Gerald loved you far too well ever to love me +altogether. He loved us both. But the Gerald that loved you so dearly, +old, old friends as you were, and TRUSTED you, he turned a terrible face +of contempt on me. You don't know, Oliver, the cold edge of Gerald's +contempt for me--because he was so secure and strong in his old +friendship with you. You don't know his sneering attitude to me in the +deepest things with you. He had a passion for me. But he loved you. + +OLIVER. Well, he doesn't any more. We went apart after you had gone. The +friendship has become almost casual. + +ANABEL. You see how bitterly you speak. + +OLIVER. Yet you didn't hate me, Anabel. + +ANABEL. No, Oliver--I was AWFULLY fond of you. I trusted you--and I +trust you still. You see I knew how fond Gerald was of you. And I had +to respect this feeling. So I HAD to be aware of you: and I HAD to be +conscious of you: in a way, I had to love you. You understand how I +mean? Not with the same fearful love with which I loved Gerald. You +seemed to me warm and protecting--like a brother, you know--but a +brother one LOVES. + +OLIVER. And then you hated me? + +ANABEL. Yes, I had to hate you. + +OLIVER. And you hated Gerald? + +ANABEL. Almost to madness--almost to madness. + +OLIVER. Then you went away with that Norwegian. What of him? + +ANABEL. What of him? Well, he's dead. + +OLIVER. Ah! That's why you came back? + +ANABEL. No, no. I came back because my only hope in life was in coming +back. Baard was beautiful--and awful. You know how glisteningly blond he +was. Oliver, have you ever watched the polar bears? He was cold as iron +when it is so cold that it burns you. Coldness wasn't negative with him. +It was positive--and awful beyond expression--like the aurora borealis. + +OLIVER. I wonder you ever got back. + +ANABEL. Yes, so do I. I feel as if I'd fallen down a fissure in the ice. +Yet I have come back, haven't I? + +OLIVER. God knows! At least, Anabel, we've gone through too much ever to +start the old game again. There'll be no more sticky love between us. + +ANABEL. No, I think there won't, either. + +OLIVER. And what of Gerald? + +ANABEL. I don't know. What do you think of him? + +OLIVER. I can't think any more. I can only blindly go from day to day, +now. + +ANABEL. So can I. Do you think I was wrong to come back? Do you think I +wrong Gerald? + +OLIVER. No. I'm glad you came. But I feel I can't KNOW anything. We must +just go on. + +ANABEL. Sometimes I feel I ought never to have come to Gerald +again--never--never--never. + +OLIVER. Just left the gap?--Perhaps, if everything has to come asunder. +But I think, if ever there is to be life--hope,--then you had to come +back. I always knew it. There is something eternal between you and him; +and if there is to be any happiness, it depends on that. But perhaps +there is to BE no happiness--for our part of the world. + +ANABEL (after a pause). Yet I feel hope--don't you? + +OLIVER. Yes, sometimes. + +ANABEL. It seemed to me, especially that winter in Norway,--I can hardly +express it,--as if any moment life might give way under one, like thin +ice, and one would be more than dead. And then I knew my only hope was +here--the only hope. + +OLIVER. Yes, I believe it. And I believe--- + + +(Enter MRS. BARLOW.) + + +MRS. BARLOW. Oh, I wanted to speak to you, Oliver. + +OLIVER. Shall I come across? + +MRS. BARLOW. No, not now. I believe father is coming here with Gerald. + +OLIVER. Is he going to walk so far? + +MRS. BARLOW. He will do it.--I suppose you know Oliver? + +ANABEL. Yes, we have met before. + +MRS. BARLOW (to OLIVER). You didn't mention it. Where have you met Miss +Wrath? She's been about the world, I believe. + +ANABEL. About the world?--no, Mrs. Barlow. If one happens to know Paris +and London--- + +MRS. BARLOW. Paris and London! Well, I don't say you are all together +an adventuress. My husband seems very pleased with you--for Winifred's +sake, I suppose--and he's wrapped up in Winifred. + +ANABEL. Winifred is an artist. + +MRS. BARLOW. All my children have the artist in them. They get it from +my family. My father went mad in Rome. My family is born with a black +fate--they all inherit it. + +OLIVER. I believe one is master of one's fate sometimes, Mrs. Barlow. +There are moments of pure choice. + +MRS. BARLOW. Between two ways to the same end, no doubt. There's no +changing the end. + +OLIVER. I think there is. + +MRS. BARLOW. Yes, you have a _parvenu's_ presumptuousness somewhere +about you. + +OLIVER. Well, better than a blue-blooded fatalism. + +MRS. BARLOW. The fate is in the blood: you can't change the blood. + + +(Enter WINIFRED.) + + +WINIFRED. Oh, thank you, Oliver, for the wolf and the goat, thank you so +much!--The wolf has sprung on the goat, Miss Wrath, and has her by the +throat. + +ANABEL. The wolf? + +OLIVER. It's a little marble group--Italian--in hard marble. + +WINIFRED. The wolf--I love the wolf--he pounces so beautifully. His +backbone is so terribly fierce. I don't feel a bit sorry for the goat, +somehow. + +OLIVER. I didn't. She is too much like the wrong sort of clergyman. + +WINIFRED. Yes--such a stiff, long face. I wish he'd kill her. + +MRS. BARLOW. There's a wish! + +WINIFRED. Father and Gerald are coming. That's them, I suppose. + + +(Enter MR. BARLOW and GERALD.) + + +MR. BARLOW. Ah, good morning--good morning--quite a little gathering! +Ah--- + +OLIVER. The steps tire you, Mr. Barlow. + +MR. BARLOW. A little--a little--thank you.--Well, Miss Wrath, are you +quite comfortable here? + +ANABEL. Very comfortable, thanks. + +GERALD. It was clever of you, father, to turn this place into a studio. + +MR. BARLOW. Yes, Gerald. You make the worldly schemes, and I the homely. +Yes, it's a delightful place. I shall come here often if the two young +ladies will allow me.--By the way, Miss Wrath, I don't know if you +have been introduced to my son Gerald. I beg your pardon. Miss Wrath, +Gerald--my son, Miss Wrath. (They bow.) Well, we are quite a gathering, +quite a pleasant little gathering. We never expected anything so +delightful a month ago, did we, Winifred, darling? + +WINIFRED. No, daddy, it's much nicer than expectations. + +MR. BARLOW. So it is, dear--to have such exceptional companionship +and such a pleasant retreat. We are very happy to have Miss Wrath with +us--very happy. + +GERALD. A studio's awfully nice, you know; it is such a retreat. A +newspaper has no effect in it--falls quite flat, no matter what the +headlines are. + +MR. BARLOW. Quite true, Gerald, dear. It is a sanctum the world cannot +invade--unlike all other sanctuaries, I am afraid. + +GERALD. By the way, Oliver--to go back to profanities--the colliers +really are coming out in support of the poor, ill-used clerks. + +MR. BARLOW. No, no, Gerald--no, no! Don't be such an alarmist. Let us +leave these subjects before the ladies. No, no: the clerks will have +their increase quite peacefully. + +GERALD. Yes, dear father--but they can't have it peacefully now. We've +been threatened already by the colliers--we've already received an +ultimatum. + +MR. BARLOW. Nonsense, my boy--nonsense! Don't let us split words. You +won't go against the clerks in such a small matter. Always avoid trouble +over small matters. Don't make bad feeling--don't make bad blood. + +MRS. BARLOW. The blood is already rotten in the neighbourhood. What +it needs is letting out. We need a few veins opening, or we shall have +mortification setting in. The blood is black. + +MR. BARLOW. We won't accept your figure of speech literally, dear. No, +Gerald, don't go to war over trifles. + +GERALD. It's just over trifles that one must make war, father. One can +yield gracefully over big matters. But to be bullied over trifles is a +sign of criminal weakness. + +MR. BARLOW. Ah, not so, not so, my boy. When you are as old as I am, you +will know the comparative insignificance of these trifles. + +GERALD. The older _I_ get, father, the more such trifles stick in my +throat. + +MR. BARLOW. Ah, it is an increasingly irritable disposition in you, my +child. Nothing costs so bitterly, in the end, as a stubborn pride. + +MRS. BARLOW. Except a stubborn humility--and that will cost you +more. Avoid humility, beware of stubborn humility: it degrades. Hark, +Gerald--fight! When the occasion comes, fight! If it's one against five +thousand, fight! Don't give them your heart on a dish! Never! If they +want to eat your heart out, make them fight for it, and then give it +them poisoned at last, poisoned with your own blood.--What do you say, +young woman? + +ANABEL. Is it for me to speak, Mrs. Barlow? + +MRS. BARLOW. Weren't you asked? + +ANABEL. Certainly I would NEVER give the world my heart on a dish. But +can't there ever be peace--real peace? + +MRS. BARLOW. No--not while there is devilish enmity. + +MR. BARLOW. You are wrong, dear, you are wrong. The peace can come, the +peace that passeth all understanding. + +MRS. BARLOW. That there is already between me and Almighty God. I am +at peace with the God that made me, and made me proud. With men who +humiliate me I am at war. Between me and the shameful humble there +is war to the end, though they are millions and I am one. I hate the +people. Between my race and them and my children--for ever war, for ever +and ever. + +MR. BARLOW. Ah, Henrietta--you have said all this before. + +MRS. BARLOW. And say it again. Fight, Gerald. You have my blood in you, +thank God. Fight for it, Gerald. Spend it as if it were costly, Gerald, +drop by drop. Let no dogs lap it.--Look at your father. He set his heart +on a plate at the door, for the poorest mongrel to eat up. See him now, +wasted and crossed out like a mistake--and swear, Gerald, swear to be +true to my blood in you. Never lie down before the mob, Gerald. Fight it +and stab it, and die fighting. It's a lost hope--but fight! + +GERALD. Don't say these things here, mother. + +MRS. BARLOW. Yes, I will--I will. I'll say them before you, and the +child Winifred--she knows. And before Oliver and the young woman--they +know, too. + +MR. BARLOW. You see, dear, you can never understand that, although I +am weak and wasted, although I may be crossed out from the world like a +mistake, I still have peace in my soul, dear, the peach that passeth all +understanding. + +MRS. BARLOW. And what right have you to it? All very well for you to +take peace with you into the other world. What do you leave for your +sons to inherit? + +MR. BARLOW. The peace of God, Henrietta, if there is no peace among men. + +MRS. BARLOW. Then why did you have children? Why weren't you celibate? +They have to live among men. If they have no place among men, why have +you put them there? If the peace of God is no more than the peace of +death, why are your sons born of you? How can you have peace with God, +if you leave no peace for your sons--no peace, no pride, no place on +earth? + +GERALD. Nay, mother, nay. You shall never blame father on my behalf. + +MRS. BARLOW. Don't trouble--he is blameless--I, a hulking, half-demented +woman, I am GLAD when you blame me. But don't blame me when I tell you +to fight. Don't do that, or you will regret it when you must die. Ah, +your father was stiff and proud enough before men of better rank than +himself. He was overbearing enough with his equals and his betters. But +he humbled himself before the poor, he made me ashamed. He must hear +it--he must hear it! Better he should hear it than die coddling himself +with peace. His humility, and my pride, they have made a nice ruin of +each other. Yet he is the man I wanted to marry--he is the man I +would marry again. But never, never again would I give way before his +goodness. Gerald, if you must be true to your father, be true to me as +well. Don't set me down at nothing because I haven't a humble case. + +GERALD. No, mother--no, dear mother. You see, dear mother, I have rather +a job between the two halves of myself. When you come to have the wild +horses in your own soul, mother, it makes it difficult. + +MRS. BARLOW. Never mind, you'll have help. + +GERALD. Thank you for the assurance, darling.--Father, you don't mind +what mother says, I hope. I believe there's some truth in it--don't you? + +MR. BARLOW. I have nothing to say. + +WINIFRED. _I_ think there's some truth in it, daddy. You were always +worrying about those horrid colliers, and they didn't care a bit about +you. And they OUGHT to gave cared a million pounds. + +MR. BARLOW. You don't understand, my child. + + +(Curtain.) + + + + +ACT II + + + SCENE: Evening of the same day. Drawing-room at Lilly Close. MR. + BARLOW, GERALD, WINIFRED, ANABEL OLIVER present. Butler pours + coffee. + + +MR. BARLOW. And you are quite a stranger in these parts, Miss Wrath? + +ANABEL. Practically. But I was born at Derby. + +MR. BARLOW. I was born in this house--but it was a different affair +then: my father was a farmer, you know. The coal has brought us +what moderate wealth we have. Of course, we were never poor or +needy--farmers, substantial farmers. And I think we were happier +so--yes.--Winnie, dear, hand Miss Wrath the sweets. I hope they're good. +I ordered them from London for you.--Oliver, my boy, have you everything +you like? That's right.--It gives me such pleasure to see a little +festive gathering in this room again. I wish Bertie and Elinor might be +here. What time is it, Gerald? + +GERALD. A quarter to nine, father. + +MR. BARLOW. Not late yet. I can sit with you another half-hour. I am +feeling better to-day. Winifred, sing something for us. + +WINIFRED. Something jolly, father? + +MR. BARLOW. Very jolly, darling. + +WINIFRED. I'll sing "The Lincolnshire Poacher," shall I? + +MR. BARLOW. Do, darling, and we'll all join in the chorus.--Will you +join in the chorus, Miss Wrath? + +ANABEL. I will. It is a good song. + +MR. BARLOW. Yes, isn't it! + +WINIFRED. All dance for the chorus, as well as singing. + + +(They sing; some pirouette a little for the chorus.) + + +MR. BARLOW. Ah, splendid! Splendid! There is nothing like gaiety. + +WINIFRED. I do love to dance about. I know: let us do a little +ballet--four of us--oh, do! + +GERALD. What ballet, Winifred? + +WINIFRED. Any. Eva can play for us. She plays well. + +MR. BARLOW. You won't disturb your mother? Don't disturb Eva if she +is busy with your mother. (Exit WINIFRED.) If only I can see Winifred +happy, my heart is at rest: if only I can hope for her to be happy in +her life. + +GERALD. Oh, Winnie's all right, father--especially now she has Miss +Wrath to initiate her into the mysteries of life and labour. + +ANABEL. Why are you ironical? + +MR. BARLOW. Oh, Miss Wrath, believe me, we all feel that--it is the +greatest possible pleasure to me that you have come. + +GERALD. I wasn't ironical, I assure you. + +MR. BARLOW. No, indeed--no, indeed! We have every belief in you. + +ANABEL. But why should you have? + +MR. BARLOW. Ah, my dear child, allow us the credit of our own +discernment. And don't take offence at my familiarity. I am afraid I am +spoilt since I am an invalid. + + +(Re-enter WINIFRED, with EVA.) + + +MR. BARLOW. Come, Eva, you will excuse us for upsetting your evening. +Will you be so good as to play something for us to dance to? + +EVA. Yes, sir. What shall I play? + +WINIFRED. Mozart--I'll find you the piece. Mozart's the saddest musician +in the world--but he's the best to dance to. + +MR. BARLOW. Why, how is it you are such a connoisseur in sadness, +darling? + +GERALD. She isn't. She's a flagrant amateur. + + +(EVA plays; they dance a little ballet.) + + +MR. BARLOW. Charming--charming, Miss Wrath:--will you allow me to +say _Anabel_, we shall all feel so much more at home? Yes--thank +you--er--you enter into the spirit of it wonderfully, Anabel, dear. The +others are accustomed to play together. But it is not so easy to come in +on occasion as you do. + +GERALD. Oh, Anabel's a genius!--I beg your pardon, Miss +Wrath--familiarity is catching. + +MR. BARLOW. Gerald, my boy, don't forget that you are virtually host +here. + +EVA. Did you want any more music, sir? + +GERALD. No, don't stay, Eva. We mustn't tire father. (Exit EVA.) + +MR. BARLOW. I am afraid, Anabel, you will have a great deal to excuse +in us, in the way of manners. We have never been a formal household. But +you have lived in the world of artists: you will understand, I hope. + +ANABEL. Oh, surely--- + +MR. BARLOW. Yes, I know. We have been a turbulent family, and we have +had our share of sorrow, even more, perhaps, than of joys. And sorrow +makes one indifferent to the conventionalities of life. + +GERALD. Excuse me, father: do you mind if I go and write a letter I have +on my conscience? + +MR. BARLOW. No, my boy. (Exit GERALD.) We have had our share of sorrow +and of conflict, Miss Wrath, as you may have gathered. + +ANABEL. Yes--a little. + +MR. BARLOW. The mines were opened when my father was a boy--the +first--and I was born late, when he was nearly fifty. So that all my +life has been involved with coal and colliers. As a young man, I was +gay and thoughtless. But I married young, and we lost our first child +through a terrible accident. Two children we have lost through sudden +and violent death. (WINIFRED goes out unnoticed.) It made me reflect. +And when I came to reflect, Anabel, I could not justify my position in +life. If I believed in the teachings of the New Testament--which I +did, and do--how could I keep two or three thousand men employed and +underground in the mines, at a wage, let us say, of two pounds a week, +whilst I lived in this comfortable house, and took something like two +thousand pounds a year--let us name any figure--- + +ANABEL. Yes, of course. But is it money that really matters, Mr. Barlow? + +MR. BARLOW. My dear, if you are a working man, it matters. When I +went into the homes of my poor fellows, when they were ill or had had +accidents--then I knew it mattered. I knew that the great disparity was +wrong--even as we are taught that it is wrong. + +ANABEL. Yes, I believe that the great disparity is a mistake. But take +their lives, Mr. Barlow. Do you thing they would LIVE more, if they had +more money? Do you think the poor live less than the rich?--is their +life emptier? + +MR. BARLOW. Surely their lives would be better, Anabel. + +OLIVER. All our lives would be better, if we hadn't to hang on in +the perpetual tug-of-war, like two donkeys pulling at one carrot. The +ghastly tension of possessions, and struggling for possession, spoils +life for everybody. + +MR. BARLOW. Yes, I know now, as I knew then, that it was wrong. But +how to avoid the wrong? If I gave away the whole of my income, it would +merely be an arbitrary dispensation of charity. The money would still be +mine to give, and those that received it would probably only be weakened +instead of strengthened. And then my wife was accustomed to a certain +way of living, a certain establishment. Had I any right to sacrifice +her, without her consent? + +ANABEL. Why, no! + +MR. BARLOW. Again, if I withdrew from the Company, if I retired on a +small income, I knew that another man would automatically take my place, +and make it probably harder for the men. + +ANABEL. Of course--while the system stands, if one makes self-sacrifice +one only panders to the system, makes it fatter. + +MR. BARLOW. One panders to the system--one panders to the system. And +so, you see, the problem is too much. One man cannot alter or affect the +system; he can only sacrifice himself to it. Which is the worst thing +probably that he can do. + +OLIVER. Quite. But why feel guilty for the system?--everybody supports +it, the poor as much as the rich. If every rich man withdrew from the +system, the working class and socialists would keep it going, every man +in the hope of getting rich himself at last. It's the people that are +wrong. They want the system much more than the rich do--because they are +much more anxious to be rich--never having been rich, poor devils. + +MR. BARLOW. Just the system. So I decided at last that the best way was +to give every private help that lay in my power. I would help my men +individually and personally, wherever I could. Not one of them came +to me and went away unheard; and there was no distress which could be +alleviated that I did not try to alleviate. Yet I am afraid that the +greatest distress I never heard of, the most distressed never came to +me. They hid their trouble. + +ANABEL. Yes, the decent ones. + +MR. BARLOW. But I wished to help--it was my duty. Still, I think that, +on the whole, we were a comfortable and happy community. Barlow & +Walsall's men were not unhappy in those days, I believe. We were +liberal; the men lived. + +OLIVER. Yes, that is true. Even twenty years ago the place was still +jolly. + +MR. BARLOW. And then, when Gerald was a lad of thirteen, came the great +lock-out. We belonged to the Masters' Federation--I was but one man on +the Board. We had to abide by the decision. The mines were closed till +the men would accept the reduction.--Well, that cut my life across. We +were shutting the men out from work, starving their families, in order +to force them to accept a reduction. It may be the condition of +trade made it imperative. But, for myself, I would rather have +lost everything.--Of course, we did what we could. Food was very +cheap--practically given away. We had open kitchen here. And it was +mercifully warm summer-time. Nevertheless, there was privation and +suffering, and trouble and bitterness. We had the redcoats down--even +to guard this house. And from this window I saw Whatmore head-stocks +ablaze, and before I could get to the spot the soldiers had shot two +poor fellows. They were not killed, thank God--- + +OLIVER. Ah, but they enjoyed it--they enjoyed it immensely. I remember +what grand old sporting weeks they were. It was like a fox-hunt, +so lively and gay--bands and tea-parties and excitement everywhere, +pit-ponies loose, men all over the country-side--- + +MR. BARLOW. There was a great deal of suffering, which you were too +young to appreciate. However, since that year I have had to acknowledge +a new situation--a radical if unspoken opposition between masters and +men. Since that year we have been split into opposite camps. Whatever I +might privately feel, I was one of the owners, one of the masters, +and therefore in the opposite camp. To my men I was an oppressor, a +representative of injustice and greed. Privately, I like to think that +even to this day they bear me no malice, that they have some lingering +regard for me. But the master stands before the human being, and the +condition of war overrides individuals--they hate the master, even +whilst, as a human being, he would be their friend. I recognise the +inevitable justice. It is the price one has to pay. + +ANABEL. Yes, it is difficult--very. + +MR. BARLOW. Perhaps I weary you? + +ANABEL. Oh, no--no. + +MR. BARLOW. Well--then the mines began to pay badly. The seams ran thin +and unprofitable, work was short. Either we must close down or introduce +a new system, American methods, which I dislike so extremely. Now it +really became a case of men working against machines, flesh and blood +working against iron, for a livelihood. Still, it had to be done--the +whole system revolutionised. Gerald took it in hand--and now I hardly +know my own pits, with the great electric plants and strange +machinery, and the new coal-cutters--iron men, as the colliers call +them--everything running at top speed, utterly dehumanised, inhuman. +Well, it had to be done; it was the only alternative to closing down and +throwing three thousand men out of work. And Gerald has done it. But I +can't bear to see it. The men of this generation are not like my men. +They are worn and gloomy; they have a hollow look that I can't bear +to see. They are a great grief to me. I remember men even twenty years +ago--a noisy, lively, careless set, who kept the place ringing. I feel +it is unnatural; I feel afraid of it. And I cannot help feeling guilty. + +ANABEL. Yes--I understand. It terrifies me. + +MR. BARLOW. Does it?--does it?--Yes.--And as my wife says, I leave it +all to Gerald--this terrible situation. But I appeal to God, if anything +in my power could have averted it, I would have averted it. I would have +made any sacrifice. For it is a great and bitter trouble to me. + +ANABEL. Ah, well, in death there is no industrial situation. Something +must be different there. + +MR. BARLOW. Yes--yes. + +OLIVER. And you see sacrifice isn't the slightest use. If only people +would be sane and decent. + +MR. BARLOW. Yes, indeed.--Would you be so good as to ring, Oliver? I +think I must go to bed. + +ANABEL. Ah, you have over-tired yourself. + +MR. BARLOW. No, my dear--not over-tired. Excuse me if I have burdened +you with all this. I relieves me to speak of it. + +ANABEL. I realise HOW terrible it is, Mr. Barlow--and how helpless one +is. + +MR. BARLOW. Thank you, my dear, for your sympathy. + +OLIVER. If the people for one minute pulled themselves up and conquered +their mania for money and machine excitement, the whole thing would be +solved.--Would you like me to find Winnie and tell her to say good night +to you? + +MR. BARLOW. If you would be so kind. (Exit OLIVER.) Can't you find +a sweet that you would like, my dear? Won't you take a little cherry +brandy? + + +(Enter BUTLER.) + + +ANABEL. Thank you. + +WILLIAM. You will go up, sir? + +MR. BARLOW. Yes, William. + +WILLIAM. You are tired to-night, sir. + +MR. BARLOW. It has come over me just now. + +WILLIAM. I wish you went up before you became so over-tired, sir. Would +you like nurse? + +MR. BARLOW. No, I'll go with you, William. Good night, my dear. + +ANABEL. Good night, Mr. Barlow. I am so sorry if you are over-tired. + + (Exit BUTLER and MR. BARLOW. ANABEL takes a drink and goes to + the fire.) + + +(Enter GERALD.) + + +GERALD. Father gone up? + +ANABEL. Yes. + +GERALD. I thought I heard him. Has he been talking too much?--Poor +father, he will take things to heart. + +ANABEL. Tragic, really. + +GERALD. Yes, I suppose it is. But one can get beyond tragedy--beyond the +state of feeling tragical, I mean. Father himself is tragical. One feels +he is mistaken--and yet he wouldn't be any different, and be himself, I +suppose. He's sort of crucified on an idea of the working people. It's +rather horrible when he's one's father.--However, apart from tragedy, +how do you like being here, in this house? + +ANABEL. I like the house. It's rather too comfortable. + +GERALD. Yes. But how do you like being here? + +ANABEL. How do you like my being in your home? + +GERALD. Oh, I think you're very decorative. + +ANABEL. More decorative than comfortable? + +GERALD. Perhaps. But perhaps you give the necessary finish to the +establishment. + +ANABEL. Like the correct window-curtains? + +GERALD. Yes, something like that. I say, why did you come, Anabel? Why +did you come slap-bang into the middle of us?--It's not expostulation--I +want to know. + +ANABEL. You mean you want to be told? + +GERALD. Yes, I want to be told. + +ANABEL. That's rather mean of you. You should savvy, and let it go +without saying. + +GERALD. Yes, but I don't savvy. + +ANABEL. Then wait till you do. + +GERALD. No, I want to be told. There's a difference in you, Anabel, that +puts me out, rather. You're sort of softer and sweeter--I'm not sure +whether it isn't a touch of father in you. There's a little sanctified +smudge on your face. Are you really a bit sanctified? + +ANABEL. No, not sanctified. It's true I feel different. I feel I want +a new way of life--something more dignified, more religious, if you +like--anyhow, something POSITIVE. + +GERALD. Is it the change of heart, Anabel? + +ANABEL. Perhaps it is, Gerald. + +GERALD. I'm not sure that I like it. Isn't it like a berry that decides +to get very sweet, and goes soft? + +ANABEL. I don't think so. + +GERALD. Slightly sanctimonious. I think I liked you better before. I +don't think I like you with this touch of aureole. People seem to me so +horribly self-satisfied when they get a change of heart--they take such +a fearful lot of credit to themselves on the strength of it. + +ANABEL. I don't think I do.--Do you feel no different, Gerald? + +GERALD. Radically, I can't say I do. I feel very much more INdifferent. + +ANABEL. What to? + +GERALD. Everything. + +ANABEL. You're still angry--that's what it is. + +GERALD. Oh, yes, I'm angry. But that is part of my normal state. + +ANABEL. Why are you angry? + +GERALD. Is there any reason why I shouldn't be angry? I'm angry because +you treated me--well, so impudently, really--clearing out and leaving +one to whistle to the empty walls. + +ANABEL. Don't you think it was time I cleared out, when you became so +violent, and really dangerous, really like a madman? + +GERALD. Time or not time, you went--you disappeared and left us high and +dry--and I am still angry.--But I'm not only angry about that. I'm angry +with the colliers, with Labour for its low-down impudence--and I'm angry +with father for being so ill--and I'm angry with mother for looking such +a hopeless thing--and I'm angry with Oliver because he thinks so much--- + +ANABEL. And what are you angry with yourself for? + +GERALD. I'm angry with myself for being myself--I always was that. I was +always a curse to myself. + +ANABEL. And that's why you curse others so much? + +GERALD. You talk as if butter wouldn't melt in your mouth. + +ANABEL. You see, Gerald, there has to be a change. You'll have to +change. + +GERALD. Change of heart?--Well, it won't be to get softer, Anabel. + +ANABEL. You needn't be softer. But you can be quieter, more sane even. +There ought to be some part of you that can be quiet and apart from the +world, some part that can be happy and gentle. + +GERALD. Well, there isn't. I don't pretend to be able to extricate a +soft sort of John Halifax, Gentleman, out of the machine I'm mixed up +in, and keep him to gladden the connubial hearth. I'm angry, and I'm +angry right through, and I'm not going to play bo-peep with myself, +pretending not to be. + +ANABEL. Nobody asks you to. But is there no part of you that can be a +bit gentle and peaceful and happy with a woman? + +GERALD. No, there isn't.--I'm not going to smug with you--no, not I. +You're smug in your coming back. You feel virtuous, and expect me to +rise to it. I won't. + +ANABEL. Then I'd better have stayed away. + +GERALD. If you want me to virtuise and smug with you, you had. + +ANABEL. What DO you want, then? + +GERALD. I don't know. I know I don't want THAT. + +ANABEL. Oh, very well. (Goes to the piano; begins to play.) + + +(Enter MRS. BARLOW.) + + +GERALD. Hello, mother! Father HAS gone to bed. + +MRS. BARLOW. Oh, I thought he was down here talking. You two alone? + +GERALD. With the piano for chaperone, mother. + +MRS. BARLOW. That's more than I gave you credit for. I haven't come to +chaperone you either, Gerald. + +GERALD. Chaperone ME, mother! Do you think I need it? + +MRS. BARLOW. If you do, you won't get it. I've come too late to be of +any use in that way, as far as I hear. + +GERALD. What have you heard, mother? + +MRS. BARLOW. I heard Oliver and this young woman talking. + +GERALD. Oh, did you? When? What did they say? + +MRS. BARLOW. Something about married in the sight of heaven, but +couldn't keep it up on earth. + +GERALD. I don't understand. + +MRS. BARLOW. That you and this young woman were married in the sight of +heaven, or through eternity, or something similar, but that you couldn't +make up your minds to it on earth. + +GERALD. Really! That's very curious, mother. + +MRS. BARLOW. Very common occurrence, I believe. + +GERALD. Yes, so it is. But I don't think you heard quite right, dear. +There seems to be some lingering uneasiness in heaven, as a matter of +fact. We'd quite made up our minds to live apart on earth. But where did +you hear this, mother? + +MRS. BARLOW. I heard it outside the studio door this morning. + +GERALD. You mean you happened to be on one side of the door while Oliver +and Anabel were talking on the other? + +MRS. BARLOW. You'd make a detective, Gerald--you're so good at putting +two and two together. I listened till I'd heard as much as I wanted. +I'm not sure I didn't come down here hoping to hear another conversation +going on. + +GERALD. Listen outside the door, darling? + +MRS. BARLOW. There'd be nothing to listen to if I were inside. + +GERALD. It isn't usually done, you know. + +MRS. BARLOW. I listen outside doors when I have occasion to be +interested--which isn't often, unfortunately for me. + +GERALD. But I've a queer feeling that you have a permanent occasion to +be interested in me. I only half like it. + +MRS. BARLOW. It's surprising how uninteresting you are, Gerald, for a +man of your years. I have not had occasion to listen outside a door, for +you, no, not for a great while, believe me. + +GERALD. I believe you implicitly, darling. But do you happen to know +me through and through, and in and out, all my past and present doings, +mother? Have you a secret access to my room, and a spy-hole, and all +those things? This is uncomfortably thrilling. You take on a new lustre. + +MRS. BARLOW. Your memoirs wouldn't make you famous, my son. + +GERALD. Infamous, dear? + +MRS. BARLOW. Good heavens, no! What a lot you expect from your very mild +sins! You and this young woman have lived together, then? + +GERALD. Don't say "this young woman," mother dear--it's slightly vulgar. +It isn't for me to compromise Anabel by admitting such a thing, you +know. + +MRS. BARLOW. Do you ask me to call her Anabel? I won't. + +GERALD. Then say "this person," mother. It's more becoming. + +MRS. BARLOW. I didn't come to speak to you, Gerald. I know you. I came +to speak to this young woman. + +GERALD. "Person," mother.--Will you curtsey, Anabel? And I'll twist my +handkerchief. We shall make a Cruikshank drawing, if mother makes her +hair a little more slovenly. + +MRS. BARLOW. You and Gerald were together for some time? + +GERALD. Three years, off and on, mother. + +MRS. BARLOW. And then you suddenly dropped my son, and went away? + +GERALD. To Norway, mother--so I have gathered. + +MRS. BARLOW. And now you have come back because that last one died? + +GERALD. Is he dead, Anabel? How did he die? + +ANABEL. He was killed on the ice. + +GERALD. Oh, God! + +MRS. BARLOW. Now, having had your fill of tragedy, you have come back to +be demure and to marry Gerald. Does he thank you? + +GERALD. You must listen outside the door, mother, to find that out. + +MRS. BARLOW. Well, it's your own affair. + +GERALD. What a lame summing up, mother!--quite unworthy of you. + +ANABEL. What did you wish to say to me, Mrs. Barlow? Please say it. + +MRS. BARLOW. What did I wish to say! Ay, what did I wish to say! What +is the use of my saying anything? What am I but a buffoon and a slovenly +caricature in the family? + +GERALD. No, mother dear, don't climb down--please don't. Tell Anabel +what you wanted to say. + +MRS. BARLOW. Yes--yes--yes. I came to say--don't be good to my +son--don't be too good to him. + +GERALD. Sounds weak, dear--mere contrariness. + +MRS. BARLOW. Don't presume to be good to my son, young woman. I won't +have it, even if he will. You hear me? + +ANABEL. Yes. I won't presume, then. + +GERALD. May she presume to be bad to me, mother? + +MRS. BARLOW. For that you may look after yourself.--But a woman who was +good to him would ruin him in six months, take the manhood out of him. +He has a tendency, a secret hankering, to make a gift of himself to +somebody. He sha'n't do it. I warn you. I am not a woman to be despised. + +ANABEL. No--I understand. + +MRS. BARLOW. Only one other thing I ask. If he must fight--and fight +he must--let him alone: don't you try to shield him or save him. DON'T +INTERFERE--do you hear? + +ANABEL. Not till I must. + +MRS. BARLOW. NEVER. Learn your place, and keep it. Keep away from him, +if you are going to be a wife to him. Don't go too near. And don't let +him come too near. Beat him off if he tries. Keep a solitude in your +heart even when you love him best. Keep it. If you lose it, you lose +everything. + +GERALD. But that isn't love, mother. + +MRS. BARLOW. What? + +GERALD. That isn't love. + +MRS. BARLOW. WHAT? What do you know of love, you ninny? You only know +the feeding-bottle. It's what you want, all of you--to be brought up by +hand, and mew about love. Ah, God!--Ah, God!--that you should none of +you know the only thing which would make you worth having. + +GERALD. I don't believe in your only thing, mother. But what is it? + +MRS. BARLOW. What you haven't got--the power to be alone. + +GERALD. Sort of megalomania, you mean? + +MRS. BARLOW. What? Megalomania! What is your LOVE but a megalomania, +flowing over everybody and everything like spilt water? Megalomania! +I hate you, you softy! I would BEAT you (suddenly advancing on him and +beating him fiercely)--beat you into some manhood--beat you--- + +GERALD. Stop, mother--keep off. + +MRS. BARLOW. It's the men who need beating nowadays, not the children. +Beat the softness out of him, young woman. It's the only way, if you +love him enough--if you love him enough. + +GERALD. You hear, Anabel? + + + Speak roughly to your little boy, + And beat him when he sneezes. + + +MRS. BARLOW (catching up a large old fan, and smashing it about his +head). You softy--you piffler--you will never have had enough! Ah, you +should be thrust in the fire, you should, to have the softness and the +brittleness burnt out of you! + + + (The door opens--OLIVER TURTON enters, followed by JOB ARTHUR FREER. + MRS. BARLOW is still attacking GERALD. She turns, infuriated.) + + +Go out! Go out! What do you mean by coming in unannounced? Take him +upstairs--take that fellow into the library, Oliver Turton. + +GERALD. Mother, you improve our already pretty reputation. Already they +say you are mad. + +MRS. BARLOW (ringing violently). Let me be mad then. I am mad--driven +mad. One day I shall kill you, Gerald. + +GERALD. You won't, mother because I sha'n't let you. + +MRS. BARLOW. Let me!--let me! As if I should wait for you to let me! + +GERALD. I am a match for you even in violence, come to that. + +MRS. BARLOW. A match! A damp match. A wet match. + + +(Enter BUTLER.) + + +WILLIAM. You rang, madam? + +MRS. BARLOW. Clear up those bits.--Where are you going to see that +white-faced fellow? Here? + +GERALD. I think so. + +MRS. BARLOW. You will STILL have them coming to the house, will you? You +will still let them trample in our private rooms, will you? Bah! I ought +to leave you to your own devices. (Exit.) + +GERALD. When you've done that, William, ask Mr. Freer to come down here. + +WILLIAM. Yes, sir. (A pause. Exit WILLIAM.) + +GERALD. So-o-o. You've had another glimpse of the family life. + +ANABEL. Yes. Rather--disturbing. + +GERALD. Not at all, when you're used to it. Mother isn't as mad as she +pretends to be. + +ANABEL. I don't think she's mad at all. I think she has most desperate +courage. + +GERALD. "Courage" is good. That's a new term for it. + +ANABEL. Yes, courage. When a man says "courage" he means the courage to +die. A woman means the courage to live. That's what women hate men most +for, that they haven't the courage to live. + +GERALD. Mother takes her courage in both hands rather late. + +ANABEL. We're a little late ourselves. + +GERALD. We are, rather. By the way, you seem to have had plenty of +the courage of death--you've played a pretty deathly game, it seems to +me--both when I knew you and afterwards, you've had your finger pretty +deep in the death-pie. + +ANABEL. That's why I want a change of--of--- + +GERALD. Of heart?--Better take mother's tip, and try the poker. + +ANABEL. I will. + +GERALD. Ha--corraggio! + +ANABEL. Yes--corraggio! + +GERALD. Corraggiaccio! + +ANABEL. Corraggione! + +GERALD. Cock-a-doodle-doo! + + +(Enter OLIVER and FREER.) + + +Oh, come in. Don't be afraid; it's a charade. (ANABEL rises.) No, don't +go, Anabel. Corraggio! Take a seat, Mr. Freer. + +JOB ARTHUR. Sounds like a sneezing game, doesn't it? + +GERALD. It is. Do you know the famous rhyme: + + + Speak roughly to your little boy, + And beat him when he sneezes? + + +JOB ARTHUR. No, I can't say I do. + +GERALD. My mother does. Will you have anything to drink? Will you help +yourself? + +JOB ARTHUR. Well--no--I don't think I'll have anything, thanks. + +GERALD. A cherry brandy?--Yes?--Anabel, what's yours? + +ANABEL. Did I see Kummel? + +GERALD. You did. (They all take drinks.) What's the latest, Mr. Freer? + +JOB ARTHUR. The latest? Well, I don't know, I'm sure--- + +GERALD. Oh, yes. Trot it out. We're quite private. + +JOB ARTHUR. Well--I don't know. There's several things. + +GERALD. The more the merrier. + +JOB ARTHUR. I'm not so sure. The men are in a very funny temper, Mr. +Barlow--very funny. + +GERALD. Coincidence--so am I. Not surprising, is it? + +JOB ARTHUR. The men, perhaps not. + +GERALD. What else, Job Arthur? + +JOB ARTHUR. You know the men have decided to stand by the office men? + +GERALD. Yes. + +JOB ARTHUR. They've agreed to come out next Monday. + +GERALD. Have they? + +JOB ARTHUR. Yes; there was no stopping them. They decided for it like +one man. + +GERALD. How was that? + +JOB ARTHUR. That's what surprises me. They're a jolly sight more certain +over this than they've ever been over their own interests. + +GERALD. All their love for the office clerks coming out in a rush? + +JOB ARTHUR. Well, I don't know about love; but that's how it is. + +GERALD. What is it, if it isn't love? + +JOB ARTHUR. I can't say. They're in a funny temper. It's hard to make +out. + +GERALD. A funny temper, are they? Then I suppose we ought to laugh. + +JOB ARTHUR. No, I don't think it's a laughing matter. They're coming out +on Monday for certain. + +GERALD. Yes--so are the daffodils. + +JOB ARTHUR. Beg pardon? + +GERALD. Daffodils. + +JOB ARTHUR. No, I don't follow what you mean. + +GERALD. Don't you? But I thought Alfred Breffitt and William Straw were +not very popular. + +JOB ARTHUR. No, they aren't--not in themselves. But it's the principle +of the thing--so it seems. + +GERALD. What principle? + +JOB ARTHUR. Why, all sticking together, for one thing--all Barlow & +Walsall's men holding by one another. + +GERALD. United we stand? + +JOB ARTHUR. That's it. And then it's the strong defending the weak as +well. There's three thousand colliers standing up for thirty-odd office +men. I must say I think it's sporting myself. + +GERALD. You do, do you? United we stand, divided we fall. What do they +stand for really? What is it? + +JOB ARTHUR. Well--for their right to a living wage. That's how I see it. + +GERALD. For their right to a living wage! Just that? + +JOB ARTHUR. Yes, sir--that's how I see it. + +GERALD. Well, that doesn't seem so preposterously difficult does it? + +JOB ARTHUR. Why, that's what I think myself, Mr. Gerald. It's such a +little thing. + +GERALD. Quite. I suppose the men themselves are to judge what is a +living wage? + +JOB ARTHUR. Oh, I think they're quite reasonable, you know. + +GERALD. Oh, yes, eminently reasonable. Reason's their strong point.--And +if they get their increase they'll be quite contented? + +JOB ARTHUR. Yes, as far as I know, they will. + +GERALD. As far as you know? Why, is there something you don't +know?--something you're not sure about? + +JOB ARTHUR. No--I don't think so. I think they'll be quite satisfied +this time. + +GERALD. Why this time? Is there going to be a next +time--every-day-has-its-to-morrow kind of thing? + +JOB ARTHUR. I don't know about that. It's a funny world, Mr. Barlow. + +GERALD. Yes, I quite believe it. How do you see it so funny? + +JOB ARTHUR. Oh, I don't know. Everything's in a funny state. + +GERALD. What do you mean by everything? + +JOB ARTHUR. Well--I mean things in general--Labour, for example. + +GERALD. You think Labour's in a funny state, do you? What do you think +it wants? What do you think, personally? + +JOB ARTHUR. Well, in my own mind, I think it wants a bit of its own +back. + +GERALD. And how does it mean to get it? + +JOB ARTHUR. Ha! that's not so easy to say. But it means to have it, in +the long run. + +GERALD. You mean by increasing demands for higher wages? + +JOB ARTHUR. Yes, perhaps that's one road. + +GERALD. Do you see any other? + +JOB ARTHUR. Not just for the present. + +GERALD. But later on? + +JOB ARTHUR. I can't say about that. The men will be quiet enough for a +bit, if it's all right about the office men, you know. + +GERALD. Probably. But have Barlow & Walsall's men any special grievance +apart from the rest of the miners? + +JOB ARTHUR. I don't know. They've no liking for you, you know, sir. + +GERALD. Why? + +JOB ARTHUR. They think you've got a down on them. + +GERALD. Why should they? + +JOB ARTHUR. I don't know, sir; but they do. + +GERALD. So they have a personal feeling against me? You don't think all +the colliers are the same, all over the country? + +JOB ARTHUR. I think there's a good deal of feeling--- + +GERALD. Of wanting their own back? + +JOB ARTHUR. That's it. + +GERALD. But what can they do? I don't see what they can do. They can go +out on strike--but they've done that before, and the owners, at a pinch, +can stand it better than they can. As for the ruin of the industry, +if they do ruin it, it falls heaviest on them. In fact, it leaves them +destitute. There's nothing they can do, you know, that doesn't hit them +worse than it hits us. + +JOB ARTHUR. I know there's something in that. But if they had a strong +man to lead them, you see--- + +GERALD. Yes, I've heard a lot about that strong man--but I've never come +across any signs of him, you know. I don't believe in one strong man +appearing out of so many little men. All men are pretty big in an age, +or in a movement, which produces a really big man. And Labour is a great +swarm of hopelessly little men. That's how I see it. + +JOB ARTHUR. I'm not so sure about that. + +GERALD. I am. Labour is a thing that can't have a head. It's a sort of +unwieldy monster that's bound to run its skull against the wall sooner +or later, and knock out what bit of brain it's got. You see, you need +wit and courage and real understanding if you're going to do anything +positive. And Labour has none of these things--certainly it shows no +signs of them. + +JOB ARTHUR. Yes, when it has a chance, I think you'll see plenty of +courage and plenty of understanding. + +GERALD. It always had a chance. And where one sees a bit of courage, +there's no understanding; and where there's some understanding, there's +absolutely no courage. It's hopeless, you know--it would be far best if +they'd all give it up, and try a new line. + +JOB ARTHUR. I don't think they will. + +GERALD. No, I don't, either. They'll make a mess and when they've made +it, they'll never get out of it. They can't--they're too stupid. + +JOB ARTHUR. They've never had a try yet. + +GERALD. They're trying every day. They just simply couldn't control +modern industry--they haven't the intelligence. They've no LIFE +intelligence. The owners may have little enough, but Labour has none. +They're just mechanical little things that can make one or two motions, +and they're done. They've no more idea of life than a lawn-mower has. + +JOB ARTHUR. It remains to be seen. + +GERALD. No, it doesn't. It's perfectly obvious--there's nothing remains +to be seen. All that Labour is capable of, is smashing things up. And +even for that I don't believe it has either the energy or the courage or +the bit of necessary passion, or slap-dash--call it whatever you will. +However, we'll see. + +JOB ARTHUR. Yes, sir. Perhaps you see now why you're not so very +popular, Mr. Gerald. + +GERALD. We can't all be popular, Job Arthur. You're very high up in +popularity, I believe. + +JOB ARTHUR. Not so very. They listen to me a bit. But you never know +when they'll let you down. I know they'll let me down one day--so it +won't be a surprise. + +GERALD. I should think not. + +JOB ARTHUR. But about the office men, Mr. Gerald. You think it'll be all +right? + +GERALD. Oh, yes, that'll be all right. + +JOB ARTHUR. Easiest for this time, anyhow, sir. We don't want bloodshed, +do we? + +GERALD. I shouldn't mind at all. It might clear the way to something. +But I have absolutely no belief in the power of Labour even to bring +about anything so positive as bloodshed. + +JOB ARTHUR. I don't know about that--I don't know. Well. + +GERALD. Have another drink before you go.--Yes, do. Help yourself. + +JOB ARTHUR. Well--if you're so pressing. (Helps himself.) Here's luck, +all! + +ALL. Thanks. + +GERALD. Take a cigar--there's the box. Go on--take a handful--fill your +case. + +JOB ARTHUR. They're a great luxury nowadays, aren't they? Almost beyond +a man like me. + +GERALD. Yes, that's the worst of not being a bloated capitalist. Never +mind, you'll be a Cabinet Minister some day.--Oh, all right--I'll open +the door for you. + +JOB ARTHUR. Oh, don't trouble. Good night--good night. (Exeunt.) + +OLIVER. Oh, God, what a world to live in! + +ANABEL. I rather liked him. What is he? + +OLIVER. Checkweighman--local secretary for the Miner's Federation--plays +the violin well, although he was a collier, and it spoilt his hands. +They're a musical family. + +ANABEL. But isn't he rather nice? + +OLIVER. I don't like him. But I confess he's a study. He's the modern +Judas. + +ANABEL. Don't you think he likes Gerald? + +OLIVER. I'm sure he does. The way he suns himself here--like a cat +purring in his luxuriation. + +ANABEL. Yes--I don't mind it. It shows a certain sensitiveness and a +certain taste. + +OLIVER. Yes, he has both--touch of the artist, as Mrs. Barlow says. He +loves refinement, culture, breeding, all those things--loves them--and a +presence, a fine free manner. + +ANABEL. But that is nice in him. + +OLIVER. Quite. But what he loves, and what he admires, and what he +aspires to, he MUST betray. It's his fatality. He lives for the moment +when he can kiss Gerald in the Garden of Olives, or wherever it was. + +ANABEL. But Gerald shouldn't be kissed. + +OLIVER. That's what I say. + +ANABEL. And that's what his mother means as well, I suppose. + + +(Enter GERALD.) + + +GERALD. Well--you've heard the voice of the people. + +ANABEL. He isn't the people. + +GERALD. I think he is, myself--the epitome. + +OLIVER. No, he's a special type. + +GERALD. Ineffectual, don't you think? + +ANABEL. How pleased you are, Gerald! How pleased you are with yourself! +You love the turn with him. + +GERALD. It's rather stimulating, you know. + +ANABEL. It oughtn't to be, then. + +OLIVER. He's you Judas, and you love him. + +GERALD. Nothing so deep. He's just a sort of AEolian harp that sings to +the temper of the wind. I find him amusing. + +ANABEL. I think it's boring. + +OLIVER. And I think it's nasty. + +GERALD. I believe you're both jealous of him. What do you think of the +working man, Oliver? + +OLIVER. It seems to me he's in nearly as bad a way as the British +employer: he's nearly as much beside the point. + +GERALD. What point? + +OLIVER. Oh, just life. + +GERALD. That's too vague, my boy. Do you think they'll ever make a +bust-up? + +OLIVER. I can't tell. I don't see any good in it, if they do. + +GERALD. It might clear the way--and it might block the way for ever: +depends what comes through. But, sincerely, I don't think they've got it +in them. + +ANABEL. They may have something better. + +GERALD. That suggestion doesn't interest me, Anabel. Ah, well, we shall +see what we shall see. Have a whisky and soda with me, Oliver, and let +the troubled course of this evening run to a smooth close. It's quite +like old times. Aren't you smoking, Anabel? + +ANABEL. No, thanks. + +GERALD. I believe you're a reformed character. So it won't be like old +times, after all. + +ANABEL. I don't want old times. I want new ones. + +GERALD. Wait till Job Arthur has risen like Anti-christ, and proclaimed +the resurrection of the gods.--Do you see Job Arthur proclaiming +Dionysos and Aphrodite? + +ANABEL. It bores me. I don't like your mood. Good night. + +GERALD. Oh, don't go. + +ANABEL. Yes, good night. (Exit.) + +OLIVER. She's NOT reformed, Gerald. She's the same old moral +character--moral to the last bit of her, really--as she always was. + +GERALD. Is that what it is?--But one must be moral. + +OLIVER. Oh, yes. Oliver Cromwell wasn't as moral as Anabel is--nor such +an iconoclast. + +GERALD. Poor old Anabel! + +OLIVER. How she hates the dark gods! + +GERALD. And yet they cast a spell over her. Poor old Anabel! Well, +Oliver, is Bacchus the father of whisky? + +OLIVER. I don't know.--I don't like you either. You seem to smile all +over yourself. It's objectionable. Good night. + +GERALD. Oh, look here, this is censorious. + +OLIVER. You smile to yourself. (Exit.) + + +(Curtain.) + + + + +ACT III + + +SCENE I + + An old park. Early evening. In the background a low Georgian + hall, which has been turned into offices for the Company, shows + windows already lighted. GERALD and ANABEL walk along the path. + + +ANABEL. How beautiful this old park is! + +GERALD. Yes, it is beautiful--seems so far away from everywhere, if one +doesn't remember that the hall is turned into offices.--No one has lived +here since I was a little boy. I remember going to a Christmas party at +the Walsalls'. + +ANABEL. Has it been shut up so long? + +GERALD. The Walsalls didn't like it--too near the ugliness. They were +county, you know--we never were: father never gave mother a chance, +there. And besides, the place is damp, cellars full of water. + +ANABEL. Even now? + +GERALD. No, not now--they've been drained. But the place would be too +damp for a dwelling-house. It's all right as offices. They burn enormous +fires. The rooms are quite charming. This is what happens to the stately +homes of England--they buzz with inky clerks, or their equivalent. +Stateliness is on its last legs. + +ANABEL. Yes, it grieves me--though I should be bored if I had to +be stately, I think.--Isn't it beautiful in this light, like an +eighteenth-century aquatint? I'm sure no age was as ugly as this, since +the world began. + +GERALD. For pure ugliness, certainly not. And I believe none has been +so filthy to live in.--Let us sit down a minute, shall we? and watch the +rooks fly home. It always stirs sad, sentimental feelings in me. + +ANABEL. So it does in me.--Listen! one can hear the coal-carts on the +road--and the brook--and the dull noise of the town--and the beating of +New London pit--and voices--and the rooks--and yet it is so still. We +seem so still here, don't we? + +GERALD. Yes. + +ANABEL. Don't you think we've been wrong? + +GERALD. How? + +ANABEL. In the way we've lived--and the way we've loved. + +GERALD. It hasn't been heaven, has it? Yet I don't know that we've been +wrong, Anabel. We had it to go through. + +ANABEL. Perhaps.--And, yes, we've been wrong, too. + +GERALD. Probably. Only, I don't feel it like that. + +ANABEL. Then I think you ought. You ought to feel you've been wrong. + +GERALD. Yes, probably. Only, I don't. I can't help it. I think we've +gone the way we had to go, following our own natures. + +ANABEL. And where has it landed us? + +GERALD. Here. + +ANABEL. And where is that? + +GERALD. Just on this bench in the park, looking at the evening. + +ANABEL. But what next? + +GERALD. God knows! Why trouble? + +ANABEL. One must trouble. I want to feel sure. + +GERALD. What of? + +ANABEL. Of you--and of myself. + +GERALD. Then BE sure. + +ANABEL. But I can't. Think of the past--what it's been. + +GERALD. This isn't the past. + +ANABEL. But what is it? Is there anything sure in it? Is there any real +happiness? + +GERALD. Why not? + +ANABEL. But how can you ask? Think of what our life has been. + +GERALD. I don't want to. + +ANABEL. No, you don't. But what DO you want? + +GERALD. I'm all right, you know, sitting here like this. + +ANABEL. But one can't sit here forever, can one? + +GERALD. I don't want to. + +ANABEL. And what will you do when we leave here? + +GERALD. God knows! Don't worry me. Be still a bit. + +ANABEL. But I'M worried. You don't love me. + +GERALD. I won't argue it. + +ANABEL. And I'm not happy. + +GERALD. Why not, Anabel? + +ANABEL. Because you don't love me--and I can't forget. + +GERALD. I do love you--and to-night I've forgotten. + +ANABEL. Then make me forget, too. Make me happy. + +GERALD. I CAN'T make you--and you know it. + +ANABEL. Yes, you can. It's your business to make me happy. I've made you +happy. + +GERALD. You want to make me unhappy. + +ANABEL. I DO think you're the last word in selfishness. If I say I can't +forget, you merely say, "I'VE forgotten"; and if I say I'm unhappy, all +YOU can answer is that I want to make YOU unhappy. I don't in the least. +I want to be happy myself. But you don't help me. + +GERALD. There is no help for it, you see. If you WERE happy with me here +you'd be happy. As you aren't, nothing will make you--not genuinely. + +ANABEL. And that's all you care. + +GERALD. No--I wish we could both be happy at the same moment. But +apparently we can't. + +ANABEL. And why not?--Because you're selfish, and think of nothing but +yourself and your own feelings. + +GERALD. If it is so, it is so. + +ANABEL. Then we shall never be happy. + +GERALD. Then we sha'n't. (A pause.) + +ANABEL. Then what are we going to do? + +GERALD. Do? + +ANABEL. Do you want me to be with you? + +GERALD. Yes. + +ANABEL. Are you sure? + +GERALD. Yes. + +ANABEL. Then why don't you want me to be happy? + +GERALD. If you'd only BE happy, here and now--- + +ANABEL. How can I? + +GERALD. How can't you?--You've got a devil inside you. + +ANABEL. Then make me not have a devil. + +GERALD. I've know you long enough--and known myself long enough--to know +I can make you nothing at all, Anabel: neither can you make me. If +the happiness isn't there--well, we shall have to wait for it, like +a dispensation. It probably means we shall have to hate each other a +little more.--I suppose hate is a real process. + +ANABEL. Yes, I know you believe more in hate than in love. + +GERALD. Nobody is more weary of hate than I am--and yet we can't fix our +own hour, when we shall leave off hating and fighting. It has to work +itself out in us. + +ANABEL. But I don't WANT to hate and fight with you any more. I don't +BELIEVE in it--not any more. + +GERALD. It's a cleansing process--like Aristotle's Katharsis. We shall +hate ourselves clean at last, I suppose. + +ANABEL. Why aren't you clean now? Why can't you love? (He laughs.) DO +you love me? + +GERALD. Yes. + +ANABEL. Do you want to be with me for ever? + +GERALD. Yes. + +ANABEL. Sure? + +GERALD. Quite sure. + +ANABEL. Why are you so cool about it? + +GERALD. I'm not. I'm only sure--which you are not. + +ANABEL. Yes, I am--I WANT to be married to you. + +GERALD. I know you want me to want you to be married to me. But whether +off your own bat you have a positive desire that way, I'm not sure. You +keep something back--some sort of female reservation--like a dagger up +your sleeve. You want to see me in transports of love for you. + +ANABEL. How can you say so? There--you see--there--this is the man that +pretends to love me, and then says I keep a dagger up my sleeve. You +liar! + +GERALD. I do love you--and you do keep a dagger up your sleeve--some +devilish little female reservation which spies at me from a distance, in +your soul, all the time, as if I were an enemy. + +ANABEL. How CAN you say so?--Doesn't it show what you must be yourself? +Doesn't it show?--What is there in your soul? + +GERALD. I don't know. + +ANABEL. Love, pure love?--Do you pretend it's love? + +GERALD. I'm so tired of this. + +ANABEL. So am I, dead tired: you self-deceiving, self complacent thing. +Ha!--aren't you just the same? You haven't altered one scrap not a +scrap. + +GERALD. All right--you are always free to change yourself. + +ANABEL. I HAVE changed I AM better, I DO love you--I love you wholly and +unselfishly--I do--and I want a good new life with you. + +GERALD. You're terribly wrapped up in your new goodness. I wish you'd +make up your mind to be downright bad. + +ANABEL. Ha!--Do you?--You'd soon see. You'd soon see where you'd be +if---- There's somebody coming. (Rises.) + +GERALD. Never mind; it's the clerks leaving work, I suppose. Sit still. + +ANABEL. Won't you go? + +GERALD. No. (A man draws near, followed by another.) + +CLERK. Good evening, sir. (Passes on.) Good evening, Mr. Barlow. + +ANABEL. They are afraid. + +GERALD. I suppose their consciences are uneasy about this strike. + +ANABEL. Did you come to sit here just to catch them, like a spider +waiting for them? + +GERALD. No. I wanted to speak to Breffitt. + +ANABEL. I believe you're capable of any horridness. + +GERALD. All right, you believe it. (Two more figures approach.) Good +evening. + +CLERKS. Good night, sir. (One passes, one stops.) Good evening, Mr. +Barlow. Er--did you want to see Mr. Breffitt, sir? + +GERALD. Not particularly. + +CLERK. Oh! He'll be out directly, sir--if you'd like me to go back and +tell him you wanted him? + +GERALD. No, thank you. + +CLERK. Good night, sir. Excuse me asking. + +GERALD. Good night. + +ANABEL. Who is Mr. Breffitt? + +GERALD. He is the chief clerk--and cashier--one of father's old pillars +of society. + +ANABEL. Don't you like him? + +GERALD. Not much. + +ANABEL. Why?--You seem to dislike very easily. + +GERALD. Oh, they all used to try to snub me, these old buffers. They +detest me like poison, because I am different from father. + +ANABEL. I believe you enjoy being detested. + +GERALD. I do. (Another clerk approaches--hesitates--stops.) + +CLERK. Good evening, sir. Good evening, Mr. Barlow. Er--did you want +anybody at the office, sir? We're just closing. + +GERALD. No, I didn't want anybody. + +CLERK. Oh, no, sir. I see. Er--by the way, sir--er--I hope you don't +think this--er--bother about an increase--this strike threat--started in +the office? + +GERALD. Where did it start? + +CLERK. I should think it started--where it usually starts, Mr. +Barlow--among a few loud-mouthed people who think they can do as they +like with the men. They're only using the office men as a cry--They've +no interest in us. They want to show their power.--That's how it is, +sir. + +GERALD. Oh, yes. + +CLERK. We're powerless, if they like to make a cry out of us. + +GERALD. Quite. + +CLERK. We're as much put out about it as anybody. + +GERALD. Of course. + +CLERK. Yes--well--good night, sir. (Clerks draw near--there is a sound +of loud young voices and bicycle bells. Bicycles sweep past.) + +CLERKS. Good night, sir.--Good night, sir. + +GERALD. Good night.--They're very bucked to see me sitting here with +a woman--a young lady as they'll say. I guess your name will be flying +round to-morrow. They stop partly to have a good look at you. Do they +know you, do you think? + +ANABEL. Sure. + +CLERKS. Mr. Breffitt's just coming, sir.--Good night, sir.--Good night, +sir. (Another bicycle passes.) + +ANABEL. The bicycles don't see us.--Isn't it rather hateful to be a +master? The attitude of them all is so ugly. I can quite see that it +makes you rather a bully. + +GERALD. I suppose it does. (Figure of a large man approaches.) + +BREFFITT. Oh--ah--it's Mr. Gerald!--I couldn't make out who it +was.--Were you coming up to the office, sir? Do you want me to go back +with you? + +GERALD. No, thank you--I just wanted a word with you about this +agitation. It'll do just as well here. It's a pity it started--that the +office should have set it going, Breffitt. + +BREFFITT. It's none of the office's doing, I think you'll find, Mr. +Gerald. The office men did nothing but ask for a just advance--at any +rate, time and prices being what they are, I consider it a fair advance. +If the men took it up, it's because they've got a set of loud-mouthed +blatherers and agitators among them like Job Arthur Freer, who deserve +to be hung--and hanging they'd get, if I could have the judging of them. + +GERALD. Well--it's very unfortunate--because we can't give the clerks +their increase now, you know. + +BREFFITT. Can't you?--can't you? I can't see that it would be anything +out of the way, if I say what I think. + +GERALD. No. They won't get any increase now. It shouldn't have been +allowed to become a public cry with the colliers. We can't give in now. + +BREFFITT. Have the Board decided that? + +GERALD. They have--on my advice. + +BREFFITT. Hm!--then the men will come out. + +GERALD. We will see. + +BREFFITT. It's trouble for nothing--it's trouble that could be avoided. +The clerks could have their advance, and it would hurt nobody. + +GERALD. Too late now.--I suppose if the men come out, the clerks will +come out with them? + +BREFFITT. They'll have to--they'll have to. + +GERALD. If they do, we may then make certain alterations in the office +staff which have needed making for some time. + +BREFFITT. Very good--very good. I know what you mean.--I don't know how +your father bears all this, Mr. Gerald. + +GERALD. We keep it from him as much as possible.--You'll let the clerks +know the decision. And if they stay out with the men, I'll go over the +list of the staff with you. It has needed revising for a long time. + +BREFFITT. I know what you mean--I know what you mean--I believe I +understand the firm's interest in my department. I ought, after forty +years studying it. I've studied the firm's interest for forty years, Mr. +Gerald. I'm not likely to forget them now. + +GERALD. Of course. + +BREFFITT. But I think it's a mistake--I think it's a mistake, and I'm +bound to say it, to let a great deal of trouble rise for a very small +cause. The clerks might have had what they reasonably asked her. + +GERALD. Well, it's too late now. + +BREFFITT. I suppose it is--I suppose it is. I hope you'll remember, sir, +that I've put the interest of the firm before everything--before every +consideration. + +GERALD. Of course, Breffitt. + +BREFFITT. But you've not had any liking for the office staff, I'm +afraid, sir--not since your father put you amongst us for a few +months.--Well, sir, we shall weather this gale, I hope, as we've +weathered those in the past. Times don't become better, do they? Men are +an ungrateful lot, and these agitators should be lynched. They would, if +I had my way. + +GERALD. Yes, of course. Don't wait. + +BREFFITT. Good night to you. (Exit.) + +GERALD. Good night. + +ANABEL. He's the last, apparently. + +GERALD. We'll hope so. + +ANABEL. He puts you in a fury. + +GERALD. It's his manner. My father spoilt them--abominable old limpets. +And they're so self-righteous. They think I'm a sort of criminal who has +instigated this new devilish system which runs everything so close +and cuts it so fine--as if they hadn't made this inevitable by their +shameless carelessness and wastefulness in the past. He may well boast +of his forty years--forty years' crass, stupid wastefulness. + + + (Two or three more clerks pass, talking till they approach the seat, + then becoming silent after bidding good night.) + + +ANABEL. But aren't you a bit sorry for them? + +GERALD. Why? If they're poor, what does it matter in a world of chaos? + +ANABEL. And aren't you an obstinate ass not to give them the bit they +want. It's mere stupid obstinacy. + +GERALD. It may be. I call it policy. + +ANABEL. Men always do call their obstinacy policy. + +GERALD. Well, I don't care what happens. I wish things would come to a +head. I only fear they won't. + +ANABEL. Aren't you rather wicked?--ASKING for strife? + +GERALD. I hope I am. It's quite a relief to me to feel that I may be +wicked. I fear I'm not. I can see them all anticipating victory, in +their low-down fashion wanting to crow their low-down crowings. I'm +afraid I feel it's a righteous cause, to cut a lot of little combs +before I die. + +ANABEL. But if they're right in what they want? + +GERALD. In the right--in the right!--They're just greedy, incompetent, +stupid, gloating in a sense of the worst sort of power. They're like +vicious children, who would like to kill their parents so that they +could have the run of the larder. The rest is just cant. + +ANABEL. If you're the parent in the case, I must say you flow over with +loving-kindness for them. + +GERALD. I don't--I detest them. I only hope they will fight. If they +would, I'd have some respect for them. But you'll see what it will be. + +ANABEL. I wish I needn't, for it's very sickening. + +GERALD. Sickening beyond expression. + +ANABEL. I wish we could go right away. + +GERALD. So do I--If one could get oneself out of this. But one +can't. It's the same wherever you have industrialism--and you have +industrialism everywhere, whether it's in Timbuctoo or Paraguay or +Antananarivo. + +ANABEL. No, it isn't: you exaggerate. + +JOB ARTHUR (suddenly approaching from the other side). Good evening, Mr. +Barlow. I heard you were in here. Could I have a word with you? + +GERALD. Get on with it, then. + +JOB ARTHUR. Is it right that you won't meet the clerks? + +GERALD. Yes. + +JOB ARTHUR. Not in any way? + +GERALD. Not in any way whatsoever. + +JOB ARTHUR. But--I thought I understood from you the other night--- + +GERALD. It's all the same what you understood. + +JOB ARTHUR. Then you take it back, sir? + +GERALD. I take nothing back, because I gave nothing. + +JOB ARTHUR. Oh, excuse me, excuse me, sir. You said it would be all +right about the clerks. This lady heard you say it. + +GERALD. Don't you call witnesses against me.--Besides, what does it +matter to you? What in the name of--- + +JOB ARTHUR. Well, sir, you said it would be all right, and I went on +that--- + +GERALD. You went on that! Where did you go to? + +JOB ARTHUR. The men'll be out on Monday. + +GERALD. So shall I. + +JOB ARTHUR. Oh, yes, but--where's it going to end? + +GERALD. Do you want me to prophesy? When did I set up for a public +prophet? + +JOB ARTHUR. I don't know, sir. But perhaps you're doing more than you +know. There's a funny feeling just now among the men. + +GERALD. So I've heard before. Why should I concern myself with their +feelings? Am I to cry when every collier bumps his funny-bone--or to +laugh? + +JOB ARTHUR. It's no laughing matter, you see. + +GERALD. An I'm sure it's no crying matter--unless you want to cry, do +you see? + +JOB ARTHUR. Ah, but, very likely, it wouldn't be me would cry.--You +don't know what might happen, now. + +GERALD. I'm waiting for something to happen. I should like something to +happen--very much--very much indeed. + +JOB ARTHUR. Yes, but perhaps you'd be sorry if it did happen. + +GERALD. Is that warning or a threat? + +JOB ARTHUR. I don't know--it might be a bit of both. What I mean to +say--- + +GERALD (suddenly seizing him by the scruff of the neck and shaking him). +What do you mean to say?--I mean you to say less, do you see?--a great +deal less--do you see? You've run on with your saying long enough: that +clock had better run down. So stop your sayings--stop your sayings, +I tell you--or you'll have them shaken out of you--shaken out of +you--shaken out of you, do you see? (Suddenly flings him aside.) + + +(JOB ARTHUR, staggering, falls.) + + +ANABEL. Oh, no!--oh, no! + +GERALD. Now get up, Job Arthur; and get up wiser than you went down. +You've played your little game and your little tricks and made your +little sayings long enough. You're going to stop now. We've had quite +enough of strong men of your stamp, Job Arthur--quite enough--such +labour leaders as you. + +JOB ARTHUR. You'll be sorry, Mr. Barlow--you'll be sorry. You'll wish +you'd not attacked me. + +GERALD. Don't you trouble about me and my sorrow. Mind your own. + +JOB ARTHUR. You will--you'll be sorry. You'll be sorry for what you've +done. You'll wish you'd never begun this. + +GERALD. Begun--begun?--I'd like to finish, too, that I would. I'd like +to finish with you, too--I warn YOU. + +JOB ARTHUR. I warn you--I warn you. You won't go on much longer. Every +parish has its own vermin. + +GERALD. Vermin? + +JOB ARTHUR. Every parish has its own vermin; it lies with every parish +to destroy its own. We sha'n't have a clean parish till we've destroyed +the vermin we've got. + +GERALD. Vermin? The fool's raving. Vermin!--Another phrase-maker, by +God! Another phrase-maker to lead the people.--Vermin? What vermin? I +know quite well what _I_ mean by vermin, Job Arthur. But what do you +mean? Vermin? Explain yourself. + +JOB ARTHUR. Yes, vermin. Vermin is what lives on other people's lives, +living on their lives and profiting by it. We've got 'em in every +parish--vermin, I say--that live on the sweat and blood of the +people--live on it, and get rich on it--get rich through living on other +people's lives, the lives of the working men--living on the bodies +of the working men--that's vermin--if it isn't, what is it? And every +parish must destroy its own--every parish must destroy its own vermin. + +GERALD. The phrase, my God! the phrase. + +JOB ARTHUR. Phrase or not phrase, there it is, and face it out if you +can. There it is--there's not one in every parish--there's more than +one--there's a number--- + +GERALD (suddenly kicking him). Go! (Kicks him.) Go! (Kicks him.) go! +(JOB ARTHUR falls.) Get out! (Kicks him.) Get out, I say! Get out, I +tell you! Get out! Get out!--Vermin!--Vermin!--I'll vermin you! I'll put +my foot through your phrases. Get up, I say, get up and go--GO! + +JOB ARTHUR. It'll be you as'll go, this time. + +GERALD. What? What?--By God! I'll kick you out of this park like a +rotten bundle if you don't get up and go. + +ANABEL. No, Gerald, no. Don't forget yourself. It's enough now. It's +enough now.--Come away. Do come away. Come away--leave him--- + +JOB ARTHUR (still on the ground). It's your turn to go. It's you as'll +go, this time. + +GERALD (looking at him). One can't even tread on you. + +ANABEL. Don't, Gerald, don't--don't look at him.--Don't say any more, +you, Job Arthur.--Come away, Gerald. Come away--come--do come. + +GERALD (turning). THAT a human being! My God!--But he's right--it's +I who go. It's we who go, Anabel. He's still there.--My God! a human +being! + + +(Curtain.) + + + +SCENE II + + Market-place as in Act I. WILLIE HOUGHTON, addressing a large + crowd of men from the foot of the obelisk. + + +WILLIE. And now you're out on strike--now you've been out for a week +pretty nearly, what further are you? I heard a great deal of talk about +what you were going to do. Well, what ARE you going to do? You don't +know. You've not the smallest idea. You haven't any idea whatsoever. +You've got your leaders. Now then, Job Arthur, throw a little light +on the way in front, will you: for it seems to me we're lost in a bog. +Which way are we to steer? Come--give the word, and let's gee-up. + +JOB ARTHUR. You ask me which way we are to go. I say we can't go our own +way, because of the obstacles that lie in front. You've got to remove +the obstacles from the way. + +WILLIE. So said Balaam's ass. But you're not an ass--beg pardon; and +you're not Balaam--you're Job. And we've all got to be little Jobs, +learning how to spell patience backwards. We've lost our jobs and we've +found a Job. It's picking up a scorpion when you're looking for an +egg.--Tell us what you propose doing.... Remove an obstacle from the +way! What obstacle? And whose way? + +JOB ARTHUR. I think it's pretty plain what the obstacle is. + +WILLIE. Oh, ay. Tell us then. + +JOB ARTHUR. The obstacle to Labour is Capital. + +WILLIE. And how are we going to put salt on Capital's tail? + +JOB ARTHUR. By Labour we mean us working men; and by Capital we mean +those that derive benefit from us, take the cream off us and leave us +the skim. + +WILLIE. Oh, yes. + +JOB ARTHUR. So that, if you're going to remove the obstacle, you've +got to remove the masters, and all that belongs to them. Does everybody +agree with me? + +VOICES (loud). Ah, we do--yes--we do that--we do an' a'--yi--yi--that's +it! + +WILLIE. Agreed unanimously. But how are we going to do it? Do you +propose to send for Williamson's furniture van, to pack them in? I +should think one pantechnicon would do, just for this parish. I'll +drive. Who'll be the vanmen to list and carry? + +JOB ARTHUR. It's no use fooling. You've fooled for thirty years, and +we're no further. What's got to be done will have to be begun. It's for +every man to sweep in front of his own doorstep. You can't call your +neighbours dirty till you've washed your own face. Every parish has got +its own vermin, and it's the business of every parish to get rid of its +own. + +VOICES. That's it--that's it--that's the ticket--that's the style! + +WILLIE. And are you going to comb 'em out, or do you propose to use +Keating's? + +VOICES. Shut it! Shut it up! Stop thy face! Hold thy gab!--Go on, Job +Arthur. + +JOB ARTHUR. How it's got to be done is for us all to decide. I'm not one +for violence, except it's a force-put. But it's like this. We've been +travelling for years to where we stand now--and here the road stops. +There's a precipice below and a rock-face above. And in front of us +stand the masters. Now there's three things we can do. We can either +throw ourselves over the precipice; or we can lie down and let the +masters walk over us; or we can GET ON. + +WILLIE. Yes. That's all right. But how are you going to get on? + +JOB ARTHUR. Well--we've either got to throw the obstacle down the +cliff--or walk over it. + +VOICES. Ay--ay--ay--yes--that's a fact. + +WILLIE. I quite follow you, Job Arthur. You've either got to do for the +masters--or else just remove them, and put them somewhere else. + +VOICES. Get rid on 'em--drop 'em down the shaft--sink 'em--ha' done +wi' 'em--drop 'em down the shaft--bust the beggars--what do you do wi' +vermin? + +WILLIE. Supposing you begin. Supposing you take Gerald Barlow, and +hang him up from his lamp-post, with a piece of coal in his mouth for a +sacrament--- + +VOICES. Ay--serve him right--serve the beggar right! Shove it down's +throttle--ay! + +WILLIE. Supposing you do it--supposing you've done it--and supposing you +aren't caught and punished--even supposing that--what are you going to +do next?--THAT'S the point. + +JOB ARTHUR. We know what we're going to do. Once we can get our hands +free, we know what we're going to do. + +WILLIE. Yes, so do I. You're either going to make SUCH a mess that we +shall never get out of it--which I don't think you will do, for the +English working man is the soul of obedience and order, and he'd behave +himself to-morrow as if he was at Sunday school, no matter what he does +to-day.--No, what you'll do, Job Arthur, you'll set up another lot of +masters, such a jolly sight worse than what we've got now. I'd rather be +mastered by Gerald Barlow, if it comes to mastering, than by Job Arthur +Freer--oh, SUCH a lot! You'll be far less free with Job Arthur for +your boss than ever you were with Gerald Barlow. You'll be far more +degraded.--In fact, though I've preached socialism in the market-place +for thirty years--if you're going to start killing the masters to set +yourselves up as bosses--why, kill me along with the masters. For +I'd rather die with somebody who has one tiny little spark of decency +left--though it IS a little tiny spark--than live to triumph with those +that have none. + +VOICES. Shut thy face, Houghton--shut it up--shut him up--hustle +the beggar! Hoi!--hoi-ee!--whoo!--whoam-it, whoam-it!--whoo!-- +bow-wow!--wet-whiskers!---- + +WILLIE. And it's no use you making fool of yourselves---- (His words are +heard through an ugly, jeering, cold commotion.) + +VOICE (loudly). He's comin'. + +VOICES. Who? + +VOICE. Barlow.--See 's motor?--comin' up--sithee? + +WILLIE. If you've any sense left---- (Suddenly and violently +disappears.) + +VOICES. Sorry!--he's comin'--'s comin'--sorry, ah! Who's in?--That's +Turton drivin'--yi, he's behind wi' a woman--ah, he's comin'--he'll none +go back--hold on. Sorry!--wheer's 'e comin'?--up from Loddo--ay---- (The +cries die down--the motor car slowly comes into sight, OLIVER driving, +GERALD and ANABEL behind. The men stand in a mass in the way.) + +OLIVER. Mind yourself, there. (Laughter.) + +GERALD. Go ahead, Oliver. + +VOICE. What's yer 'urry? + + + (Crowd sways and surges on the car. OLIVER is suddenly dragged out. + GERALD stands up--he, too, is seized from behind--he wrestles--is + torn out of his greatcoat--then falls--disappears. Loud cries-- + "Hi!--hoi!--hoiee!"--all the while. The car shakes and presses + uneasily.) + + +VOICE. Stop the blazin' motor, somebody. + +VOICE. Here y' are!--hold a minute. (A man jumps in and stops the +engine--he drops in the driver's seat.) + +COLLIER (outside the car). Step down, miss. + +ANABEL. I am Mrs. Barlow. + +COLLIER. Missis, then. (Laugh.) Step done--lead 'er forrard. Take 'em +forrard. + +JOB ARTHUR. Ay, make a road. + +GERALD. You're makin' a proper fool of yourself now, Freer. + +JOB ARTHUR. You've brought it on yourself. YOU'VE made fools of plenty +of men. + +COLLIERS. Come on, now--come on! Whoa!--whoa!--he's a jibber--go pretty +now, go pretty! + +VOICES (suddenly). Lay hold o' Houghton--nab 'im--seize +'im--rats!--rats!--bring 'im forrard! + +ANABEL (in a loud, clear voice). I never knew anything so RIDICULOUS. + +VOICES (falsetto). Ridiculous! Oh, ridiculous! Mind the step, dear!--I'm +Mrs. Barlow!--Oh, are you?--Tweet--tweet! + +JOB ARTHUR. Make a space, boys, make a space, boys, make a space. +(He stands with prisoners in a cleared space before the obelisk.) +Now--now--quiet a minute--we want to ask a few questions of these +gentlemen. + +VOICES. Quiet!--quiet!--Sh-h-h! Sh-h-h!--Answer pretty--answer pretty +now!--Quiet!--Shh-h-h! + +JOB ARTHUR. We want to ask you, Mr. Gerald Barlow, why you have given +occasion for this present trouble. + +GERALD. You are a fool. + +VOICES. Oh!--oh!--naughty Barlow!--naughty baa-lamb--answer pretty--be +good baa-lamb--baa--baa!--answer pretty when gentleman asks you. + +JOB ARTHUR. Quiet a bit Sh-h-h!--We put this plain question to you, +Mr. Barlow. Why did you refuse to give the clerks this just and fair +advance, when you knew that by refusing you would throw three thousand +men out of employment? + +GERALD. You are a fool, I say. + +VOICES. Oh!--oh!--won't do--won't do, Barlow--wrong answer--wrong +answer--be good baa-lamb--naughty boy--naughty boy! + +JOB ARTHUR. Quiet a bit now!--If three thousand men ask you a just, +straightforward question, do you consider they've no right to an answer? + +GERALD. I would answer you with my foot. + +VOICES (amid a threatening scuffle). Da-di-da! Hark ye--hark ye! +Oh--whoa--whoa a bit!--won't do!--won't do!--naughty--naughty--say +you're sorry--say you're sorry--kneel and say you're sorry--kneel and +beg pardon! + +JOB ARTHUR. Hold on a bit--keep clear! + +VOICES. Make him kneel--make him kneel--on his knees with him! + +JOB ARTHUR. I think you'd better kneel down. + + + (The crowd press on GERALD--he struggles--they hit him behind the + knees, force him down.) + + +OLIVER. This is shameful and unnecessary. + +VOICES. All of 'em--on your knees--all of' em--on their knees! + + + (The seize OLIVER and WILLIE and ANABEL, hustling. ANABEL kneels + quietly--the others struggle.) + + +WILLIE. Well, of all the damned, dirty, cowardly--- + +VOICES. Shut up, Houghton--shut him up--squeeze him! + +OLIVER. Get off me--let me alone--I'll kneel. + +VOICES. Good little doggies--nice doggies--kneel and beg +pardon--yap-yap--answer--make him answer! + +JOB ARTHUR (holding up his hand for silence). It would be better if you +answered straight off, Barlow. We want to know why you prevented that +advance. + +VOICES (after a pause). Nip his neck! Make him yelp! + +OLIVER. Let me answer, then.--Because it's worse, perhaps, to be bullied +by three thousand men than by one man. + +VOICES. Oh!--oh!--dog keeps barking--stuff his mouth--stop him +up--here's a bit of paper--answer, Barlow--nip his neck--stuff his +mug--make him yelp--cork the bottle! + + + (They press a lump of newspaper into OLIVER'S mouth, and bear down on + GERALD.) + + +JOB ARTHUR. Quiet--quiet--quiet a minute, everybody. We give him a +minute--we give him a minute to answer. + +VOICES. Give him a minute--a holy minute--say your prayers, +Barlow--you've got a minute--tick-tick, says the clock--time him! + +JOB ARTHUR. Keep quiet. + +WILLIE. Of all the damned, cowardly--- + +VOICES. Sh-h-h!--Squeeze him--throttle him! Silence is golden, +Houghton.--Close the shutters, Willie's dead.--Dry up, wet whiskers! + +JOB ARTHUR. You've fifteen seconds. + +VOICES. There's a long, long trail a-winding--- + +JOB ARTHUR. The minute's up.--We ask you again, Gerald Barlow, why you +refused a just and fair demand, when you know it was against the wishes +of three thousand men all as good as yourself. + +VOICES. And a sight better--I don't think--we're not all vermin--we're +not all crawlers, living off the sweat of other folks--we're not all +parish vermin--parish vermin. + +JOB ARTHUR. And on what grounds do you think you have no occasion to +answer the straightforward question we put you here? + +ANABEL (after a pause). Answer them, Gerald. What's the use of +prolonging this? + +GERALD. I've nothing to answer. + +VOICES. Nothing to answer--Gerald, darling--Gerald, duckie--oh, +lovey-dovey--I've nothing to answer--no, by God--no, by God, he +hasna--nowt to answer--ma'e him find summat, then--answer for him--gi'e +him's answer--let him ha'e it--go on--mum--mum--lovey-dovey--rub his +nose in it--kiss the dirt, ducky--bend him down--rub his nose in--he's +saying something--oh, no, he isn't--sorry I spoke--bend him down! + +JOB ARTHUR. Quiet a bit--quiet everybody--he's got to answer--keep +quiet.--Now---- (A silence.) Now then, Barlow, will you answer, or won't +you? (Silence.) + +ANABEL. Answer them, Gerald--never mind. + +VOICES. Sh-h-h! Sh-h-h! (Silence.) + +JOB ARTHUR. You won't answer, Barlow? + +VOICE. Down the beggar! + +VOICES. Down him--put his nose down--flatten him! + + + (The crowd surges and begins to howl--they sway dangerously--GERALD + is spread-eagled on the floor, face down.) + + +JOB ARTHUR. Back--back--back a minute--back--back! (They recoil.) + +WILLIE. I HOPE there's a God in heaven. + +VOICES. Put him down--flatten him! + + +(WILLIE is flattened on the ground.) + + +JOB ARTHUR. Now, then--now then--if you won't answer, Barlow, I can't +stand here for you any more.--Take your feet off him, boys, and turn +him over--let us look at him. Let us see if he CAN speak. (They turn him +over, with another scuffle.) Now then, Barlow--you can see the sky above +you. Now do you think you're going to play with three thousand men, +with their lives and with their souls?--now do you think you're going to +answer them with your foot?--do you--do you? + + + (The crowd has begun to sway and heave dangerously, with a low, + muffled roar, above which is heard JOB ARTHUR'S voice. As he + ceases, the roar breaks into a yell--the crowd heaves.) + + +VOICES. Down him--crack the vermin--on top of him--put your foot on the +vermin! + +ANABEL (with a loud, piercing cry, suddenly starting up). Ah, no! Ah, +no! Ah-h-h-h no-o-o-o! Ah-h-h-h no-o-o-o! Ah-h-h-h no-o-o-o! No-o-o-o! +No-o-o-o! No-o! No-o-o!--Ah-h-h-h!--it's enough, it's enough, it's +enough--he's a man as you are. He's a man as you are. He's a man as you +are. (Weeps--a breath of silence.) + +OLIVER. Let us stop now--let us stop now. Let me stand up. (Silence.) I +want to stand up. (A muffled noise.) + +VOICE. Let him get up. (OLIVER rises.) + +OLIVER. Be quiet. Be quiet.--Now--choose! Choose! Choose! Choose what +you will do! Only choose! Choose!--it will be irrevocable. (A moment's +pause.) Thank God we haven't gone too far.--Gerald, get up. (Men still +hold him down.) + +JOB ARTHUR. Isn't he to answer us? Isn't he going to answer us? + +OLIVER. Yes, he shall answer you. He shall answer you. But let him stand +up. No more of this. Let him stand up. He must stand up. (Men still hold +GERALD down.) OLIVER takes hold of their hands and removes them.) +Let go--let go now. Yes, let go--yes--I ask you to let go. (Slowly, +sullenly, the men let go. GERALD is free, but he does not move.) +There--get up, Gerald! Get up! You aren't hurt, are you? You must get +up--it's no use. We're doing our best--you must do yours. When things +are like this, we have to put up with what we get. (GERALD rises slowly +and faces the mob. They roar dully.) You ask why the clerks didn't get +this increase? Wait! Wait! Do you still wish for any answer, Mr. Freer? + +JOB ARTHUR. Yes, that's what we've been waiting for. + +OLIVER. Then answer, Gerald. + +GERALD. They've trodden on my face. + +OLIVER. No matter. Job Arthur will easily answer that you've trodden +on their souls. Don't start an altercation. (The crowd is beginning to +roar.) + +GERALD. You want to know why the clerks didn't get their rise?--Because +you interfered and attempted to bully about it, do you see. That's why. + +VOICES. You want bullying.--You'll get bullying, you will. + +OLIVER. Can't you see it's no good, either side? It's no mortal use. +We might as well all die to-morrow, or to-day, or this minute, as go on +bullying one another, one side bullying the other side, and the other +side bullying back. We'd BETTER all die. + +WILLIE. And a great deal better. I'm damned if I'll take sides with +anybody against anything, after this. If I'm to die, I'll die by myself. +As for living, it seems impossible. + +JOB ARTHUR. Have the men nothing to be said for their side? + +OLIVER. They have a great deal--but not EVERYTHING, you see. + +JOB ARTHUR. Haven't they been wronged? And AREN'T they wronged? + +OLIVER. They have--and they are. But haven't they been wrong themselves, +too?--and aren't they wrong now? + +JOB ARTHUR. How? + +OLIVER. What about this affair? Do you call it right? + +JOB ARTHUR. Haven't we been driven to it? + +OLIVER. Partly. And haven't you driven the masters to it, as well? + +JOB ARTHUR. I don't see that. + +OLIVER. Can't you see that it takes two to make a quarrel? And as long +as each party hangs on to its own end of the stick and struggles to get +full hold of the stick, the quarrel will continue. It will continue till +you've killed one another. And even then, what better shall you be? What +better would you be, really, if you'd killed Gerald Barlow just now? You +wouldn't, you know. We're all human beings, after all. And why can't we +try really to leave off struggling against one another, and set up a new +state of things? + +JOB ARTHUR. That's all very well, you see, while you've got the goods. + +OLIVER. I've got very little, I assure you. + +JOB ARTHUR. Well, if you haven't, those you mix with have. They've got +the money, and the power, and they intend to keep it. + +OLIVER. As for power, somebody must have it, you know. It only rests +with you to put it into the hands of the best men, the men you REALLY +believe in.--And as for money, it's life, it's living that matters, not +simply having money. + +JOB ARTHUR. You can't live without money. + +OLIVER. I know that. And therefore why can't we have the decency to +agree simply about money--just agree to dispose of it so that all men +could live their own lives. + +JOB ARTHUR. That's what we want to do. But the others, such as Gerald +Barlow, they keep the money--AND the power. + +OLIVER. You see, if you wanted to arrange things so that money flowed +more naturally, so that it flowed naturally to every man, according to +his needs, I think we could all soon agree. But you don't. What you +want is to take it away from one set and give it to another--or keep it +yourselves. + +JOB ARTHUR. We want every man to have his proper share. + +OLIVER. I'm sure _I_ do. I want every man to be able to live and be +free. But we shall never manage it by fighting over the money. If you +want what is natural and good, I'm sure the owners would soon agree with +you. + +JOB ARTHUR. What? Gerald Barlow agree with us? + +OLIVER. Why not? I believe so. + +JOB ARTHUR. You ask him. + +OLIVER. Do you think, Gerald, that if the men really wanted a whole, +better way, you would agree with them? + +GERALD. I want a better way myself--but not their way. + +JOB ARTHUR. There, you see! + +VOICES. Ah-h! look you!--That's him--that's him all over. + +OLIVER. You want a better way,--but not his way: he wants a better +way--but not your way. Why can't you both drop your buts, and simply say +you want a better way, and believe yourselves and one another when you +say it? Why can't you? + +GERALD. Look here! I'm quite as tired of my way of life as you are of +yours. If you make me believe you want something better, then I assure +you I do: I want what you want. But Job Arthur Freer's not the man +to lead you to anything better. You can tell what people want by the +leaders they choose, do you see? You choose leaders whom I respect, and +I'll respect you, do you see? As it is, I don't. And now I'm going. + +VOICES. Who says?--Oh ay!--Who says goin'? + +GERALD. Yes, I'm going. About this affair here we'll cry quits; no more +said about it. About a new way of life, a better way all round--I tell +you I want it and need it as much as ever you do. I don't care about +money really. But I'm never going to be bullied. + +VOICE. Who doesn't care about money? + +GERALD. I don't. I think we ought to be able to alter the whole +system--but not by bullying, not because one lot wants what the other +has got. + +VOICE. No, because you've got everything. + +GERALD. Where's my coat? Now then, step out of the way. (They move +towards the car.) + + +(Curtain.) + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Touch and Go, by D. H. 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