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diff --git a/78736-h/78736-h.htm b/78736-h/78736-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b6e4df --- /dev/null +++ b/78736-h/78736-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3447 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no,date=no,address=no,email=no,url=no"> + <title> + Dethronements | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2,h3 { + clear: both; +} +h1 { margin: 1em 5% 1em; + text-align: center; + font-size: 180%;} +h2 { margin:2em 5% 1em; + text-align: center; + font-size: 160%;} +h3 { margin: 2em 5% 1em; + text-align: center; + font-size: 140%;} +.h1head { + clear: both; + display: block; + text-indent: 0em; + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; + page-break-before: avoid; + margin: 4em 5% 1em; + font-size: 180%; } +.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; 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+} + +blockquote { + margin-top: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +.illowp20 {width: 15%;} + +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78736 ***</div> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1"></span></p> + +<h1> +Dethronements +</h1> +</div> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2"></span></p> + +<div class="indent20"> +<p class="hanging1 tall"><sub><img src="images/i_002.jpg" width="20" height="18" alt="gothic letter C"></sub> Of this edition of <i>Dethronements</i> have +been printed 750 numbered Copies +only for sale.</p> + +<p class="hanging1"><sub><img src="images/i_002.jpg" width="20" height="18" alt="gothic letter C"></sub> Copy Number <span class="cursive">349</span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3"></span></p> +<p class="h1head">Dethronements</p> +</div> +<p class="center muchlarger">Imaginary Portraits of Political<br> +Characters, done in Dialogue</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="muchlarger ls">Laurence Housman</span><br> +<span class="smaller"><i>Author of “Angels & Ministers”</i></span></p> +<br> +<figure class="figcenter illowp20" id="i_003" style="max-width: 11.75em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_003.jpg" alt="Colophon; a circle surrounds a sylized lamp with 'J' and 'C' on the sides"> +</figure> + +<p class="p4 center tall">Jonathan Cape<br> +Eleven Gower Street, London</p> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4"></span></p> +<p class="center"> +<i>First published 1922</i><br> +<i>All rights reserved</i> +</p> +</div> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="Preface"> + Preface + </h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">The</span> written dialogue, as interpretative of character, +is but a form of portraiture, no more +personally identified with its subject than drawing +or painting; nor can it claim to have more verisimilitude +until it finds embodiment on the stage. +Why then, in this country at any rate, is its application +to living persons only considered legitimate when +associated with caricature? So sponsored, in the +pages of <cite>Punch</cite> and the composition of Mr. Max +Beerbohm, it has become an accepted convention +too habitual for remark. Yet caricature and verbal +parody may be as critical both of personality and +character as dialogue more seriously designed, and +may have as important an influence not merely +upon a public opinion, but upon its moral judgment +as well.</p> + +<p>The defection of <cite>Punch</cite> was felt by Gladstone to +be a serious set-back to the fortunes of his Home Rule +policy; and Tenniel’s cartoon of “the Grand old +Janus,” saying “Quite right!” to the police who +were bludgeoning an English mob, and “Quite +wrong!” to the police who were bludgeoning an Irish +one, was a personal jibe which hit him hard.</p> + +<p>The customary device, where contemporaries are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6"></span>concerned, of disembowelling the victim’s name, and +leaving it a skeleton of consonants, is a formal +concession which in effect concedes nothing. Nor +is there any reason why it should; for the only valid +objection to the medium of dialogue is in cases +where its form might mislead the reader into mistaking +fiction for fact, and the author’s invention +for the <i lang="la">ipsissima verba</i> of the characters he portrays. +I hope that this book will attract no readers so unintelligent. +Having chosen dialogue for these studies +of historical events because I find in it a natural and +direct means to the interpretation of character, my +main scruple is satisfied when I have made it plain +that they have no more authenticity because they +happen to be written in dramatic form, than they +would have were they written as political essays. +These are imaginary conversations which never +actually took place; and though I think they have +a nearer relation to the minds of the supposed +speakers than have King’s speeches to the person +who utters them, they must merely be taken as a +personal reading of characters and events, tributes +to men for all of whom I have, in one way or another, +a very great respect and admiration; and not least +for the one whom, with a reticence that is symbolical +of the part he played in the downfall of “The Man +of Business,” I have here left nameless.</p> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="Contents"> + Contents + </h2> +</div> + +<table data-summary="contents"> +<tr><td></td> + <th class="tdr muchsmaller">PAGE</th></tr> +<tbody> +<tr><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The King-Maker</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#King">13</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl pad1">(Brighton—October, 1891)</td> + <td></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Man of Business</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Man"> 35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl pad1">(Highbury—August, 1913)</td> + <td></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Instrument</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Instrument">71</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl pad1">(Washington—March, 1921)</td> + <td></td></tr> + </tbody> +</table> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a><a id="Page_9"></a></span></p> +<p class="right muchlarger" id="King"> + The King-maker +</p> +</div> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a><a id="Page_11"></a></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="Note"> + Note + </h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">Readers</span> of this dialogue may need to be reminded, +for clearer understanding, of the following +sequence of events. On November 15th, 1890, a +<i lang="la">decree nisi</i> was pronounced in the undefended divorce +suit O’Shea <i>v.</i> O’Shea and Parnell. On November +24th, Gladstone, in a letter to John Morley, stated that +Parnell’s retention of the Irish leadership would be +fatal to his own continued advocacy of the Irish +cause. In December, the majority of the Irish Party +threw over Parnell in order to placate the “Nonconformist +conscience,” and retain the co-operation +of the Liberal Party under Gladstone’s leadership. +During the months following, Parnell and his +adherents suffered a series of defeats at by-elections +in Ireland. In June 1891, immediately on the <i lang="la">decree +nisi</i> being made absolute, Parnell married Katharine +O’Shea. On October 6th he died.</p> + + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12"></span></p> + <h3> + Dramatis Personæ. + </h3> +</div> + +<div class="indent15"> +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">Charles Stewart Parnell</span><br> +(<i>Dethroned “King” of Ireland</i>).</p> + +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">Katharine Parnell</span><br> +(<i>His wife: divorced wife of Captain O’Shea</i>).</p> + +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">A Man</span><br> +(<i>Ex-valet to Captain O’Shea</i>).</p> + +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">A Servant.</span></p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="The_King-maker"> + The King-maker + </h2> +</div> + +<p class="hanging"><i>Brighton. October 1891.</i></p> + +<p class="hanging"><i>In a comfortably furnished sitting-room, with +windows looking upon the sea-parade, a Woman of +distinguished beauty sits reading beside the fire, +so intently occupied that she pays no heed to the +entry of the Servant, who unobtrusively lights the +gas, draws down the blinds, and closes the curtains. +Then taking up a tea-tray, served for two, she +retires, and the reader is left alone. But not for +long. The slam of the street-door causes an attention +which the coming and going of the Servant has +failed to arouse; and now, as the door opens, the +brightened interest of her face tells that, without +seeing, she knows who is there. Quietly, almost +furtively, she lets fall the paper she has been +reading, and turns to her husband eyes of serene +welcome, meeting confidently the sharp interrogation +of his glance.</i></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> What are you doing?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> I was reading.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Yes? What?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_14"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Those papers you just brought in.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> And I told you not to.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE</span> (<i>smiling</i>). I was wilful and disobeyed.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL</span> (<i>picking up the paper, and looking at it +with contemptuous disgust</i>). Why did you?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Isn’t “wilful” a sufficient answer, +my dear?</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And with a covert look of amusement she +watches him tear and throw the paper +into the fire.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p class="unindent">Why do you try to make me a coward? You aren’t +one yourself.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> That gutter-stuff! (<i>And the second +paper joins its fellow in the flames.</i>)</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Now wasn’t that just a bit unnecessary? +After all, they are helping to make history. +That is public opinion—the voice of the people, you +know.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Not <em>our</em> people!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Oh? Have you brought back any +better news—from there?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Nothing special. The result of the +election was out.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> You didn’t wire it. How much were +we to the bad?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> A few hundred. What does more or +less matter? It’s—it’s the priests who are winning +now.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> With divided congregations as the +result.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Yes. But I’d rather they won than +the politicians. They are honest, at any rate. Poor +fools!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> So it’s the real country we are seeing +now?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Yes. That’s the material I’ve had to +work with!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Wonderful—considering.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> And now—now one gets to the root! +But I always knew it.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> So you are not disappointed?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> No; only defeated. Yet I did think +once that I was going to win.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> So you will.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> When I’m dead, no doubt ... some +day. You can’t fight for a winning cause, and not +know that.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> But you are not going to die yet, +dearest.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL</span> (<i>with a deep sigh of dejection</i>). Oh! +Wifie, I’m so tired, so tired!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Well, who has a better right? Be +tired, my dear! Give yourself up to it: let everything +else go, and just rest! You <em>are</em> tired out. +That’s what I’ve been telling you.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Too much to do yet. Even dying would +take more time than I can spare just now.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> But you must spare time to live, my +dear—if you really wish to.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Wish? I never wished it more—for now +I <em>am</em> living. I’m awake. Doubts are over.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> King ... look at me! Don’t take +your eyes away, till I’ve done.... One of those +papers said (what others have been saying) that it +was I ... I ... need I go on?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL</span> (<i>with grim tenderness</i>). Till you’ve done: +you said....</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> I—that have ruined you.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> That’s just what they would say, of +course. It’s so easy: and pleases—so many.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> All the same—by mere accident—mayn’t +it be true? It <em>has</em> happened, you know, +sometimes, that love and politics haven’t quite gone +together.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Love and politics never do. Do you +think I’ve loved any of my party-followers: that +any of them have loved me?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Doesn’t—O’Kelly?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> He’s gone now—with the rest.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Didn’t Mr. Biggar?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Dead.... No.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Still, you love—Ireland.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Not as she is to-day—so narrow and +jealous, so stupid, so blind! Has she anything alive +in her now worth saving? That Ireland has got to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17"></span>die; and, though it doesn’t sound like it, this is the +death-rattle beginning. Ireland is going to fail, +and deserves to fail. But another Ireland won’t fail. +She’s learning her lesson—or <em>will</em> learn it, in the +grave. Something like this was bound to come; but +if it were to come again twenty years on, it wouldn’t +count. She’d know better.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Twenty years! We shall be an old +couple by then.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> In the life of a nation twenty years is +nothing. No. Ireland was shaped for failure: she +has it in her. It had got to come out. Subjection, +oppression, starvation, haven’t taught her enough: +she must face betrayal too, of the most mischievous +kind—the betrayal of well-meaning fools. After +that, paralysis, loss of confidence, loss of will, loss +of faith—in false leaders. Then she’ll begin to learn.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Do you mean that everything <em>has</em> +failed now?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Yes; if <em>I</em> fail. I’m not thinking of +myself as indispensable: it’s the principle. That’s +what I’ve been trying to make them understand. +But they won’t, they won’t! Independence, defiance—they +don’t see it as a principle, only as an expedient. +They may make it a cry, they may feel it as their +right; but when to insist on it looks like losing a +point in the game—then they give up the principle, +to become parasites! That’s what is happening +now. It’s the slave in the blood coming out—the +crisis of the disease. That’s why I’m fighting it: +and will, to the death! And when—when we are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18"></span>dead—some day: she’ll come to her senses again—and +see! Then—this will have helped.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> But will it?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Why? Don’t you believe that Ireland +will be free some day?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> I did when she chose you for her +leader.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL</span> (<i>bitterly</i>). A dead leader, one whom she +can’t hurt, may do better for her.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Don’t say “dead”!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> I shan’t be alive in twenty years, my +dear. And it may take all that.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Without you it will take more.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> It won’t be “without me.” That’s +what I mean. They may beat me to-day; but I shall +still count. Think of all Ireland’s failures! Grattan’s +Parliament counts; “Ninety-eight” counts; Fitzgerald +counts; O’Connell counts; her famines, her +emigrations, her rebellions—all count.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Does Butt count?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> He wasn’t a failure: he didn’t try to do +anything. If Ireland needs more failures, to make a +case for her conviction, shall I grudge mine? Yes, +all her failures count: they get into the blood! +Why, even the silly statues in her streets mean more +than statues can mean here. Prosperity forgets; +adversity remembers. Even hatred has its use: +it grips, and drives men on.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Did you need—hatred, to do that +for you?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Yes: till I got love!... Reason, +conviction aren’t enough. Morley said a good thing +the other day. The English, he said, meant well by +Ireland: but they didn’t mean it much.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> I suppose that’s true of some?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Quite true: and what is the most that +it amounts to? Compromise. Morley’s an authority +on compromise. And yet I like him: I get on +with him. But he’s too thick with Gladstone to be +honest over this. Curious <em>his</em> having to back the +conventions, eh?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Why does he?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Because the political salvation of his +party and its leader comes before Ireland. He means +well by her: but he doesn’t mean it so much as all +that. Still he’s the only one of them who doesn’t +pretend to look on me as a black sheep. He too has +to work with his material. That’s politics. The +Nonconformist conscience means votes—so it decides +him: just as the priests decide me.... They +would decide him in any case, I mean. And so—so +it goes on.... “Look here upon this picture, +and on this”: Ireland trying to please England; +England trying, now and then, to please Ireland! +I don’t know which is the more ludicrous; but I +know that both equally must fail. And they’ve got +to see it!—and some day they will. It won’t be +“Home Rule” then....</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20"></span></p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>So for a while he sits and thinks, his hand +in hers. Then he resumes.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p>My ruin? What would my ruin matter anyway? +Put it, that the making public of our claim—our +right to each other—is to be allowed by any possibility +to affect the cause of a nation—the justice of +that cause: doesn’t that fact, if true, show that +the whole basis of the political principles they have +so boasted, and on which we have so blindly relied, +was utterly and fantastically false and rotten? +Haven’t we, providentially, given the world the +proof that it needed of its own lie?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> We didn’t give it, my dear.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Well, their proof has satisfied them, +anyhow: as they are acting on it. Oh! When I +see what poor, weak things nations really are—so +inadequately equipped for the shaping of their own +destinies—I wonder whether in truth the history we +read is not the wrong history—mere side history, to +which a false significance has been given, because +so much blood and treasure have been expended on +it, which just a little expenditure of common sense +might have spared.... Think of all the silly accidents +and blunders, in Ireland’s great chapter of +accidents, which have counted for so much—even in +these last few years!... The Phœnix Park +business—an assassination, for which perhaps only +a dozen men were responsible—and at once, for that +one act, more suppression and hatred and coercion +are directed against a whole nation: Crimes Acts, +packed juries, judges without juries, arrests without +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21"></span>charge, imprisonments without trial. So logical, +isn’t it? What a means for putting a foreign Government +right in the eyes of the people who deny its +moral authority!... And then—Pigott, that +shallow fraud, driven to suicide by those who were +at first so eager to believe him: and the exposure of +his silly forgery turns elections, makes Home Rule +popular! Coming by such means, would it be worth +it?... Gladstone, honourably hoodwinking himself +all those years, accepting you as our secret go-between—and +you making no pretence, my dear! +Oh, I suppose it was the right and gentlemanly thing +for him to pretend not to know. It was also, it seems, +good politics. Chamberlain knew too—must have +known; for Chamberlain’s no fool; and yet to his +friend, the deceived husband, said nothing! It +wasn’t politics; not then. Now—now it’s the great +stroke, and Home Rule goes down under it.... Is +that history, or is it “Alice in Wonderland”?... +If you are my ruin now, you were also my ruin then, +when you were helping me to think that I could win +justice for a nation from politicians like these: win +it by any means except by beating them, bringing +them to their knees, making them red with the blood +of a people always in revolt, till their reputation stinks +to the whole world! And when they do at last climb +down and accept the inevitable, then their main +thought will be only how to save their own face—and +make it look a little less like the defeat they know +it to be!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> My dear, you are so tired. Do rest!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> I <em>am</em> resting: for now—thanks to you—I +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22"></span>have got at the truth! Political history is a +thing made up of accidents; but not so the fate of +men or of nations whose will is set to be free. No +accident there! That you were tied to a man you +wouldn’t live with, who wouldn’t live with you—was +an accident. But our love was no accident; it +was waiting for us before we knew anything. You +and I had each a star which shone at the other’s +birth.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Your star was mine, dearest. I +hadn’t one of my own.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Well, if nations wish to be fooled, let +them go to the devil their own way, not laying the +blame of their own folly on others! But having +got <em>you</em>—would I ever have let you go for any power +under Heaven? Why (as soon as you were free) +did I marry you? I knew that, politically, it was a +blunder: that over there it would go against us—prove +the case. Half Ireland cared nothing for the +verdict of an English jury. But when we married, +they had to believe it then.... Well, I wanted +them to believe it. I know my love would have waited, +had I asked her. And it wasn’t—it wasn’t honour, +my dear; it was much more pride: for I am a proud +man, that I own: and not less since I have won you.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> If you hadn’t been proud, dearest, +you would never have got my love.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Oh, yes, I should. Those who love, +don’t love for qualities good or bad. They love +them in the person they love—that’s all. You have +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23"></span>qualities which I didn’t care about till I found them +in you. To love is to see life—new!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> And whole. Some day—alone by +ourselves—we will!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Don’t we already?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Yes, if only—these other things +didn’t interfere. But I promised; so they must.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> My dear, when they have quite broken +me—they will in time—then I’ll come.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> You promise to go right away?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> I promise, sweetheart.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Moving toward each other they are about to +embrace, when the door opens, and the +Servant enters carrying a card upon a +tray.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">SERVANT.</span> If you please, sir.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Parnell takes the card; there is a pause while +he looks at the name.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Will you say I am engaged.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>The Servant goes. Parnell hands the card +to his wife.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p>I don’t know the man. Do you?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> No. And yet I seem to remember. +Yes; Willie had a man-servant of that name.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>The Servant returns, bearing a folded note +upon her tray.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">SERVANT.</span> If you please, sir, I was to give you +this.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL</span> (<i>having read the note</i>). Is the man still +there?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">SERVANT.</span> Yes, sir.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>There is a pause.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Show him in.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>As the Servant goes he hands the note to +Katharine, and watches while she reads +it.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p>So—you remember him?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Only the name.... I may have +seen him, now and then.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And then enters a smooth-shaven man, +sprucely dressed, with the irreproachable +manners of a well-trained servant. First, +with a murmured apology, he bows to the +lady; then, having respectfully waited +till the silence becomes marked, says</i>:)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> Good evening, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL</span> (<i>glancing again at the note</i>). You are a +valet?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> Yes, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Are you wanting a place?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> No, sir. I have a place.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Well?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> That gentleman, sir—my last employer, +dismissed me without a character.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25"></span></p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>His reference is to the note which Parnell +still holds open in his hand.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Well?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> That’s all, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Then what have you come here for?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> To give you this, sir.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>He draws out and presents a letter, rather +soiled by keeping, which has already +been opened. There is a pause, while +Parnell looks first at the address, then +runs his eye over the contents.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> May I show it to—this lady?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> Oh, yes, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Whom, I take it, you recognise?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> Yes, sir. (<i>And meeting her glance, he bows +once more.</i>)</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Parnell hands over the letter, and while +Katharine reads there is a pause.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Did you bring me this expecting money +for it?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> No, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> I see it has a date. You could have +let me have it before?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> Yes, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> More than—six months ago?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> More than a year ago, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Quite so. And you did not?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN</span> (<i>eyeing him steadfastly</i>). No, sir. I was still +comfortable in his service then, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL</span> (<i>ironically, after a pause of scrutiny eye +to eye</i>). I am singularly obliged to you.... How +did you come by it, may I ask?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> Well, sir, he’d been dining out, sir. Left +it in his pocket—hadn’t posted it.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> I see.... Had your dismissal anything +to do with this?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> Oh, no, sir. That only happened quite +recently.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> And then—he dismissed you without +a character, you say? Do you think you deserved +one?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> From him, sir?—yes, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL</span> (<i>coldly amused</i>). That is a good answer. +Have you been put to any expense coming here?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> Just my return fare, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> And were you expecting me to——?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> No, sir; I could have sent it in the post, +if I’d wished.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL</span> (<i>surprised</i>). Do you mean, then, that I +may keep this letter?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> Yes, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> I may do what I like with it?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> Just what you like, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Thank you.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>After a pause of meditation he very deliberately +tears up the letter and puts in into +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27"></span>the fire. Then, with rather icy politeness</i>:)</p> +</div> + +<p>I am much obliged to you; and I wish you a good +evening.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>A little crestfallen, but with quiet self-possession, +the man accepts the termination +of the interview.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> Good evening, sir. (<i>He moves to the door.</i>)</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Stop!</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>The man turns as the other goes towards him, +and they meet face to face.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p>You haven’t given yourself a very good character, +coming here, my man; but you might have done +worse. Anyway, you’ve washed your hands of it +now. Don’t do things like that again.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">MAN.</span> No, sir.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And as he stands hesitating, Parnell opens +the door.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p>Thank you, sir.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>The man goes. Parnell closes the door after +him, comes meditatively across, and sits +down. There is a long pause.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> What are you—thinking?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> A year ago!... If he had come to me +with that a year ago—what should I have done?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> You would have done just the same.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Torn it up? And put it in the fire?—I’m +not so sure.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> But <em>I</em> am. Hadn’t he the same +right as I had, to live his own life?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> My dear, I said “a year ago.” That +means before the case came on. That would have +stopped it—for good.... If I had had it—I +might have been tempted.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Watching him, she sees him smile.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE</span> (<i>rather tremulously</i>). Are you glad—that +you didn’t have it?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> And use it? Yes: I am—glad!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE</span> (<i>throwing herself into his arms</i>). Oh, +my dear! Why, that means everything. You’re +glad! You’re glad!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL</span> (<i>clasping her</i>). Oh, my own love, my own +dear sweet!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> You regret—nothing?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Nothing. Haven’t I made you sure of +that—yet?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Oh, my King!—my King!</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And just then the paper in the grate kindling +into flame, he points to it.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> Look! there goes—our proof.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> It doesn’t matter.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> It never did.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> That’s what I mean.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> But, politically, it might have made a +world of difference.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> Yes—to the world; not to us. We +wanted to be as we are, didn’t we?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> As we are, and as we were—how long +is it?—eleven years ago. There’s been no change +since. When I go back to my star, I shall have found +what I came for. That’s what matters most. Souls +either find or lose themselves—live or die. I lived: +I shouldn’t have done, on this earth, but for you—but +for you.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>There is a pause. He sits meditating.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> And of what—now?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> The next generation—possibly the next +but one: you and I gone, and Ireland free. In this +last year we may have done more for that—than we +could ever have planned. We’ve given them a bone +to bite on: and there’s meat on it—real meat. And +because of that, they call you my ruin, eh? I look +rather like one, I suppose, just now. But as I came +home to-night, all my mind was filled with you; and +I knew that to me you were worth far more than all +the rest. And then suddenly I thought—what am I +worth to you?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> This—that if now you told me to go—because +it was for your good—I’d go—glad—yes +glad that you’d made me do for you, at last, something +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30"></span>that was hard to do—for the first time, dearest, for +the first time!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL</span> (<i>deeply moved</i>). That so? Not an accident, +then, eh?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE</span> (<i>embracing him</i>). Oh, my dear, my +dear, my dear!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> How true to life love makes everything!—so +clear and straight—looking back now. Through +you I’ve learned this truth at any rate—that there are +two things about which a man must never compromise—first +his own soul, the right to be himself—no +matter what others may think or do.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">KATHARINE.</span> And the other?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">PARNELL.</span> His instinct, of trust or distrust, in the +character of others. I hadn’t any real doubt, but I +compromised with instinct to gain my end: did things +I didn’t believe were any good—accepted the word of +men I didn’t trust. Home Rule itself was a compromise +that I made myself accept. But I never really +believed in it. For you can’t limit the liberty of a +nation, if it’s really alive. Then came the smash—that +woke me. And that I was awake at last our love +came to be the proof.... Something different has +got to be now. Ireland will have to become more +real—more herself, more of a rebel than ever she has +been yet. If, thirty years hence, my failure shall +have helped to bring that about—an Ireland really +free—then I’ve won....</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>The words come quietly, confidently; but it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31"></span>is the voice of an exhausted man, whose +physical resources are nearly at an end. +For a long time he sits quite still, holding +his wife’s hand, saying nothing, for he +has nothing more to say. A high screen +behind the couch on which they rest cuts +off the gaslight; only the firelight plays +fitfully upon the two faces. Suddenly the +brightness falls away, and over that +foreshadowing of death, now only three +days distant, the scene closes.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a><a id="Page_33"></a></span></p> + +<p class="right muchlarger" id="Man"> + The Man of Business +</p> +</div> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34"></span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak"> + Dramatis Personæ + </h3> +</div> + +<div class="indent15"> +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">Joseph Chamberlain</span><br> +(<i>Ex-Minister</i>).</p> + +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">Jesse Collins</span><br> +(<i>His Friend</i>).</p> + +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">A Distinguished Visitor.</span></p> + +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">A Nurse.</span></p> +</div> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Man_of_Business"> + The Man of Business + </h2> +</div> + +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>Highbury. August 1913.</i></p> + +<p class="hanging"><i>Between double-doors, opening from living-room to +conservatory, sits the shadow of the once great and +powerful Minister, State Secretary for the Colonies. +To the dark, sombre tones of the heavily furnished +chamber the gorgeous colours of the orchids, hanging +in trails and festoons under their luminous +dome of glass, offer a vivid contrast. Yet even +greater is that which they present to the drawn +and haggard features of the catastrophically aged +man whose public career is now over. In wheeled +chair, with lower limbs wrapped in a shawl and +supported by a foot-rest, he sits bent and almost +motionless; and when he moves head or hand, it +is head or hand only, and the motion is slow, +painful, and hesitating, as though mind functioned +on body with difficulty, uncertain of its ground. +Nevertheless, when the door opens, and the small +squat figure of a very old and dear friend advances +towards him, his face lights instantly. With tender +reverence and affection the newcomer takes hold +of his hand, lifts, presses it, lays it back again. +And when he has seated himself, the Shadow speaks.</i></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Well, Collins? Well?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Well, my dear Chamberlain, how +are you? I’m a little late, I’m afraid.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> I hadn’t noticed. Time doesn’t +matter to me now.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> No; but I like to be punctual. +It’s my nature.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Habit.... Habit and nature +are different things, Collins. I’ve been finding that +out.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>At this, for a diversion, Collins, readjusting +his pince-nez, tilts his head bird-like, +and takes a genial look at his friend.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Joe, you are looking better to-day.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Well, even looks are not to be +despised, I suppose, when one has nothing else left.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Come, come!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Nothing else left, indeed! Don’t—don’t +be so <em>down</em>, Chamberlain.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Dear old friend!... Just now +you called me “Joe.” You don’t often do that. +Why did you?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> A reversion to old habits, I +suppose. One does as one gets older.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS</span> (<i>genially making conversation, which +he sees to be advisable</i>). I was reading only the other +day that, as we get on in years and begin to forget +other things, our childhood comes back to us.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Now I wonder if that’s true?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> I wonder.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Mine hasn’t begun to come back +to me.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> You aren’t old yet.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> I’m over eighty.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Good for another twenty years. +And once you were my senior. We weren’t quite +boys together, Collins; but we’ve been good friends.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Thank God for that!—Joe.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes, I do. More now than I +used to.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> All the same, you haven’t so much +cause to thank Him as we have.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> No?</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>The listless monotone makes the little old +man fear that he is not succeeding.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Is my talk tiring you?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Not at all.... Please go on!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> I only want to say what I said +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38"></span>just now: Don’t be down, dear friend. Your record +will stand the test better than that of others. Your +work is still going on; it hasn’t finished just because +you are—laid up.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> “Laid up” is a kind way of putting +it, Collins.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Why, I needn’t even have said +that; when here—it’s <i>sitting</i> up I find you.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Sitting <em>out</em>.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Well, “sitting out,” if you like, +for the time being. But do you imagine that this +phrase or that phrase (true for the moment) states +the case, counts, is worth troubling about?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Do I imagine? No, I don’t. I +don’t imagine anything. I was never a man of +imagination.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> You are, when you say that!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> No, Collins. When I’ve done +anything, it has been because I’ve had it in my hands +to do.... My hands are empty now. Some men +manage to think with their heads only; others do it—with +their stomachs you might almost say. I’ve +never been able to think properly unless I had hold +of things—had them here in my hands.... Look +at them, now! (<i>With a slow, faint gesture he indicates +their helplessness; then continues</i>:) I was the man +of business, ... and now, I’m out of business; so I +can’t think.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> But that business, as you call it, +Chamberlain, which you made so many of us understand +for the first time—I was a “Little Englander” +myself, once—that’s still going on.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN</span> (<i>bitterly</i>). Yes, it’s a fine business!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS</span> (<i>startled</i>). Don’t you still believe +in it?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> As a business? Yes. But it’s +going to fail all the same. There’s nobody to run +it now.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> We mean to run it, Chamberlain! +You’ll see!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> I know you do, Collins. You are +loyalty itself.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> There are others too. I’m not the +only one.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> You are the best of them.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> No, I won’t admit that.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Name?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> The best? Probably some one we +don’t yet even know. The best are still to come. +Time’s with us.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Is it?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Don’t you think so yourself?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Not now. I did once.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> You always said so.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> I said it as long as I believed it: +till the stars in their courses turned against me. +That broke me, Collins. If I could have gone on +having faith in myself, I shouldn’t be—as I am now.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> But what—what made you lose +it?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Can’t you guess?</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Collins shakes his head, remains valiantly +incredulous; and there is a pause.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p>I saw somebody else—whose cards weren’t so good—playing +with a better hand. It was the hand beat +me. My head’s all right still, though it sleeps. But +I’ve lost my hand. Look at it! (<i>Again the gesture +illustrative of defeat.</i>) Threw it away. You know +who I mean?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS</span> (<i>cautiously, rather reluctantly</i>). I +suppose I do.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN</span> (<i>watching to see the effect of his news</i>). +He’s coming to-day: to see me.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">COLLINS</span> (<i>surprised</i>). Coming here?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes, it’s all been nicely arranged—just +a call in passing. To-morrow’s papers will +describe it as “a pathetic meeting.” Well, when a +man has to meet his executioner on friendly terms, I +suppose it is “pathetic” for one of them.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>All this is very disconcerting to poor Collins. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41"></span>He helps himself to a half-sentence, and +stops.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Did he himself——?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Propose it? Oh, yes—in the +most charming way possible. Isn’t it amazing how +a man with charm can do things that nobody else +dare? I never managed to charm anybody.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> You made friends—and kept +them.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> So does he. He has been successful +all round: art, politics, letters, society—he has +friends in all. I’ve only been successful in business.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> My dear friend, aren’t you forgetting +yourself? You came <em>out</em> of business.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> No, I only changed to business on +a larger scale—carried it on under a bigger name. +That’s how I found myself. I had to make things +into a business in order to make a success of them. +That was my method, Collins: glorify it as much as +you like. And up to a point it was good business, I +don’t deny. That’s how we ran local politics, invented +the Caucus: Corporation Street is the result. That’s +how we managed to run Unionism: made a hard +and fast contract of it, and made them stick to it. +That’s how I ran the Colonies—and the Boer War. +That’s how I was going to run the Empire on a +Preferential Tariff. That came just too late. I’d +made a mistake.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> What mistake?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Collins, the Boer War wasn’t good +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42"></span>business. It might have been; but it lasted too +long. Any modern war that isn’t over in six months +now is a blunder, you’ll find. They were able to hold +out too long. That did for me. There have been +bees in my bonnet ever since—all because of it. +Boers first; then Bannerman; then—Balfour. Just +once my business instinct betrayed me, and I was +done!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> But—wasn’t the war necessary?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> To put the “business” on a sound +footing? Yes, I thought so; it looked like it. No, +it wasn’t! But before I quite knew, there’d come a +point where we couldn’t go back; and so we just had +to go on—and on. D’you know what was the +cleverest thing said or done during that war?... +You’d never guess ... but it’s true. Campbell-Bannerman’s +“methods of barbarism” speech. We +downed him for it at the time, but it caught on—it +stuck. And it was on the strength of it (with C.-B. +as their hope for the future) that the Boers were persuaded +to make peace: saved our face for us. They +might have gone on, till we got sick of it, and the +world too.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> I don’t—I can’t think you are +right, Chamberlain. You are forgetting things.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> No—I’ve had difficulty about +thinking so myself; but it has come to me.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And so he sits and meditates over the point +in his career where as a business man he +first failed. Presently he resumes</i>:)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43"></span></p> +<p>When two men, whose qualifications I used rather +to despise, beat me at business, Collins—it was a +facer!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Bannerman; and—the other?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Comes to see me to-day. But it +won’t be a business meeting. He’ll not say anything +about it—if he can help.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> And you?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Perhaps I shall succumb to his +charm. I’ve done so before now.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Have you and he—had words ever?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Differences of opinion, of course. +“Words”? How should we? He was always so +wonderfully accommodating, so polite, so apologetic +even. Nobody ever had a finer contempt for his +party than he—not even old Dizzy, or Salisbury, or +Churchill. So he could always say the handsome +thing to one—behind its back—even when he was +making burnt-offerings to its prejudices.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> And when you left him?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> When I left him he did the thing +beautifully. So genuinely sorry to lose me; so sure +of having me with him again, before long. How could +I have gone out and worked against him after that? +But it’s what—as a business politician—I ought to +have done.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> If you had—should we have won, +straight away?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> We should have won the party, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44"></span>and the party-machine too. For the rest it wouldn’t +have mattered waiting a year or two. Yes, we +should have won. But here’s this, Collins: we should +have won then; we shan’t win now. Times are +changing: the time for it is over. Something else +is coming along—what, I don’t know. My old fox-scent +has gone: wind’s against me. The Colonies +are growing up too fast. They won’t separate, +but they mean to stand on their own feet all the same: +in their own way—not mine. We ought to have +got them when they were a bit younger: we could +have done it then. Once it flattered them to be called +“Dominions”; now they are going to be “Sovereign +States.” And he—he doesn’t mind. He is never for +big constructive ideas—only for contrivances: takes +things as they come, makes the best of them—philosophically—and +gets round them; and sometimes +does it brilliantly.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> What will he talk about?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Anything that comes into his +head: the weather, the garden, the greenhouses, +the theatres. He’ll tell me, perhaps, of a book or +two that I ought to read, that he hasn’t had time for. +He’ll say, as you said, that I’m looking better than he +expected. He’ll say something handsome about +Austen—quite genuinely meaning it. Then he’ll +say he’s afraid of tiring me; then he’ll go.... Have +you noticed how he shakes hands? He hasn’t much +of a hand—not a real hand—but he does it, like +everything else, charmingly.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS</span> (<i>a little crestfallen</i>). I thought you +really liked him.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> So I do. Because he has beaten +me, is that any reason for hating him? If it were—after +a lifetime of polls and politics, one would have +to be at hate with half the world. No, from his +point of view he had to beat me, and he has done it. +What I stick at is that he has proved the better business +man! As I used head and hand—and heart +(<em>and</em> heart, Collins!)——</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Yes, yes, I know you did.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Some people thought I hadn’t a +heart: “hard as nails” they called me.... Well, +as I used those, so he used his defeats, his doubts, +his indecision, his charm—and left his heart out. +That was the real business-stroke. That did for +me.... I liked him: he knew it. Whether he ever +liked me, to this day, I don’t know—for certain. If +he did, it made no difference. That’s what I call +business.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS</span> (<i>warmly</i>). But you’ve always been +honourable.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> So has he. Don’t be sentimental, +Collins! But some men manage in public life to give +you a certain view of their character: so that you +count on it. And then, on occasion, they play +another—and get wonderful results. If I’d had that +gift, I should have used it and done better. He has +used it, and he has done better. I don’t whine about +it. But I’d rather, Collins (I suppose I’m prejudiced), +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46"></span>I’d rather he hadn’t asked himself here—just now: +not just now.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>There is a pause, and Collins feels that he +must say something; but finding nothing +of any value to say, he merely commentates +with a query.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> What has “just now” to do with +it?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> “Just now,” dear Collins, only +means the next few months or so—possibly a year. +That’s all. I had rather he’d waited, and then just +sent a wreath with the right sort of inscription on it. +He could have done that charmingly too. And I +haven’t got wreaths here for <em>him</em>, for I don’t think +that even a posy of these would really interest him.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And with a weary gesture he points to the +orchids, as though they were things of +which, not impossibly, “posies” might +be made.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS</span> (<i>a little perplexed by this introduction +of wreaths and flowers into political affairs</i>). What +does really interest him? He’s so interesting +himself.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> You’ve hit it, Collins. It’s himself. +Not selfishly. He stands for so many things that he +values—that he thinks good for the world—necessary +for the stability of the social order. He is their +embodiment: he is the most emblematic figure in +the modern world that I know—in this country, at +any rate—representing so much that is good in the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47"></span>great traditions which have got to go. And to +stave off that day he will do almost anything. He +would even—if he thought it would enable him the +better to prick some of his bubbles—he would even +take office under Lloyd George.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>At this point, unobtrusively, a Nurse enters +and stands waiting.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> I don’t think we shall live to see +that!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> I shall not; you may.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS</span> (<i>impulsively</i>). Chamberlain, I don’t +want to live after you!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN</span> (<i>cajolingly</i>). Oh, yes, you do! +Anyway—I want you to. You will send me a wreath +that will be worth having.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Whereat his quaint little companion leans +forward, and, putting his two hands +pleadingly on the swathed knees, wants to +speak but cannot. Slowly the sick man +lets down his own and covers them. And +so, hand resting on hand, he continues +speaking</i>:)</p> +</div> + +<p>Say what you like about the business man—the +man who failed: he has known how to make friends—good +ones. And you, Jesse Collins, have been one +of the best: I couldn’t have had a better. There’s +someone been waiting behind you to give you a hint +that you are tiring me—staying too long. But you +haven’t: you never have. Perhaps, in the future, +I shan’t see enough of you; perhaps, from now on, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48"></span>my doctor will have to measure even my friends for +me: three a day before meals. But I shall get +life in bits still—as long as you are allowed to come.... +Yes, Nurse, you <a id="chg1"></a>may take him away now!</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Jesse Collins rises, and stands by his friend +with moist eyes.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">JESSE COLLINS.</span> Good-bye, my dear Joe, and—God +bless you.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes ... good-bye!</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Hands press and part, and Jesse Collins +tip-toes meekly out, apologising for the +length of his stay by the softness of his +going. Chamberlain’s head drops, his +face becomes more drawn, his hands more +rigid and helpless. Without a word, his +Nurse arranges his pillows, preparing +him for the sleep to which his unresisting +body gradually succumbs.</i>)</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="hanging">(<i>Two hours later he is awake again, and the +Nurse is removing a tray from which he +has just taken some nourishment. He lifts +his head and looks at her. At this sign +that he is about to speak, she pauses. +Presently the words come.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Is he in there, waiting to see me?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">NURSE.</span> Yes, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Ask him to come in.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">NURSE.</span> You want to see him alone, sir?</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>There is a pause.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> I think only one at a time is +enough—better for me: don’t you?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">NURSE.</span> It would be less tiring for you, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes. Ask him to come in.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>So that being settled, she goes, and he sits +waiting. The afternoon sunlight is making +the orchids look more resplendently +themselves than ever. So still, so vivid, +so alive, they hang their snake-like heads +in long pendulous clusters; and among +them all there is not a single one which +shows the slightest sign of falling-off or +decay. Presently the door is softly +opened, and the Nurse, entering only +to retire again, ushers in the Distinguished +Visitor, whose brow, venerable with +intellect, and grey with the approach of +age, crowns a figure still almost youthful +in its elasticity and grace, and perfect in +the deliberate ease and deportment of its +entry into a situation which many would +find difficult. As he approaches the +wheeled chair, the kindness, modesty, +and distinction of his bearing prepare the +way before him, and his silence has +already said the nicest of nice things, +in the nicest possible way, before he +actually speaks. This he does not do till +he has already taken and held the hand +which the other has tried to offer.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DISTINGUISHED VISITOR.</span> My dear Chamberlain, +how very good of you to let me come?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Not too much out of your way, I +hope?</p> + +<p><abbr title="Distinguished Visitor"><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span></abbr> On the contrary, I could wish it were +more, if that might help to express my pleasure in +seeing you again.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Well, what there is of me, you see. +You are looking well.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> And you—much better than I expected.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Did you expect anything?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I was told that you had bad days occasionally, +and were unable to see anybody. I hope +I am fortunate, and that this is one of your good ones?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Well, as they’ve let you see me, I +suppose so. I don’t find much difference between +my good and bad days. (Won’t you sit down?) I’m +still in the possession of my faculties; I sleep well, and +I don’t have pain.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> (<i>seating himself</i>). And my staying with +you for a little is not going to tire you?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> It’s far more likely to tire you, I’m +afraid.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> No, indeed not! Apart from anything +else it is a welcome respite on the journey. Motoring +bores me terribly.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Then you had really meant coming +this way, in any case?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I had been long intending to; and when, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51"></span>last week, Hewell proposed itself, all fitted together +perfectly.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Are they having a house-party?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I think not: I trust not. No, I believe +a hint was dropped to them that it wasn’t to be—that +I was feeling far too stale for any such mental +relaxation.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Are you? You don’t look like it.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> In politics one tries not to look like anything; +but how at the end of the session can one +be otherwise?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Is all going on there—as usual?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Yes ... yes. I don’t find being in +opposition makes as much difference as I expected, +as regards work. One misses the permanent official +who always did it for one. Wonderful creatures—who +first invented them? Pitt, or was it Pepys? +Oh, no, he was one of them. A product, perhaps, of +the seventeenth century.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> In Tudor times Prime Ministers +were permanent, weren’t they?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Their heads weren’t. Executions took +the place of elections in those days. And there’s +something to be said for it.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes. There was more dignity +about it; it gave a testimonial of character; the +other doesn’t.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Still, electoral defeat is very refreshing. +Rejection by one’s own constituents is sometimes +a blessing in disguise: it saves one from undue +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52"></span>familiarity.... That has never happened to you, +has it?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> It depends what one means by—constituents. +In the strict sense—no.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And now there is a pause, for something has +been said that is not merely conversation. +Very charmingly, and with a wonderful +niceness of tone, the Distinguished Visitor +accepts the opening that has been given +him.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Chamberlain, I have been wanting to +come and see you for a long time.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Thank you. So I—guessed.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I wrote to you—a letter which you did +not answer. Perhaps it did not seem to require an +answer. But I hoped for one. So, after not hearing, +I made up my mind to come and see you.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> That was very kind of you.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> No, it wasn’t; it was natural. We’ve +worked together—so long. And I wanted to assure +myself that there was, personally—that there is now—no +cloud between us; no ill-feeling about anything. +If I thought that remotely possible, I should regret +it more than I can say. Speaking for myself——</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> If you had not thought it possible—should +you have come?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I cannot conceive how that would have +made any difference.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Still, if you had not thought it +possible, you would hardly have asked the question.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Well, now I have asked it. Speech is an +overrated means of communication—especially between +friends; but it has to serve sometimes. And +you, at least, Chamberlain, have never used it as—Talleyrand, +was it not?—recommended that it +should be used—for concealment.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> So you think that—in words at +any rate—I’ve been honest?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I should say pre-eminently.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> And—loyal?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I have never had differences—political +divergences—with any man more loyal than you, +Chamberlain.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Thank you. I value that—from +you. So the question’s answered. On my side there +is no cloud, as you tell me I have nothing with which +to reproach myself.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Thank you for the reassurance. In that +case the heavens are clear.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> I hope they are properly grateful. +Such a testimonial—from two men looking in +opposite directions—is an embracing one.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Opposite? Oh, I had hoped—though we +may not see eye to eye in everything—that still, in +the main, we were in general agreement.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Possibly. I daresay “a half-sheet +of note-paper” might still cover our “general agreement,” +so long as we only talked about it. That +served us for—two years, did it not? But I wasn’t +meaning—as to our political opinions. I meant that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54"></span>you are still looking to the future; I can only look +back.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> That, for you, must be a retrospect of deep +satisfaction. It has made much history.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Catastrophes make history—sometimes.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> You helped to avert them.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes, for a time. But another +may be coming, and I shan’t be here then. And +if I were, I should be no use.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Oh, don’t say that! Nor can I agree, +either. No use? Your good word is a power we +still depend on. No, Chamberlain, we cannot do +without you.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> You did—when you accepted my +resignation.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> For a fixed and an agreed purpose. In +a way that only bound us more closely.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> I thought so then. But it has +turned out differently.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Has it? I should not have said so. Am +I not to count on you still?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> As a diminishing force? Yes; +I shan’t disappoint you.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Oh! (<i>Deprecatingly, as of something +that need not have been said.</i>) But not that at all!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN</span> (<i>rubbing it in</i>). Necessarily: one +who, as I said, can only look backward. Forward, I +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55"></span>am nothing. Believe me, I have measured myself at +last. This is no miscalculation—like the other.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> The other?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> My resignation.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Was that one?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> It certainly had not the effect I +intended.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Surely you were not then intending to +force me against my own judgment?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> No; but I thought you, and the +rest, would follow.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I think we did: I think we still do. But +sometimes, with followers, following takes time.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> It will take more than my time. +That is where I miscalculated.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> But, my dear Chamberlain—if one may +be personal—you are maintaining your strength, are +you not? The doctors—are hopeful?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> The regulation paragraphs are +supplied to the papers, if that’s what you mean.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> But I had this from members of your +own family.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Quite so; it is they who supply +them.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Then, if the source is so authoritative, +surely it must be true.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Are newspaper paragraphs in such +cases—ever true?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Perhaps I am no judge. As you know, +I seldom read them.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Aren’t the probabilities that they +will always overstate the case—as far as possible?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> That is a course which, as an old politician,—speaking +generally—I must own has its advantages. +So often, when things are uncertain, one has to act +as if one were sure.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes, you’ve done that—sometimes. +Sometimes you haven’t. I shouldn’t call +you an old politician, though. Being old is the thing +you’ve always managed to avoid. And yet, you’ve +been in at a good many political deaths first and last.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> That, in itself, is an ageing experience.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes?... I wonder.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Oh, but surely!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> <em>I</em> wasn’t sure; but I take your +word for it.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> In politics, somehow, the deaths seem +always to exceed the births: those who go have become +more intimate: one has got to know them. Yes, +the departures do certainly overshadow the arrivals.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yet sometimes they must have +come to you as a relief.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> My dear Chamberlain, don’t say that! +It isn’t true.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Oh! I wasn’t thinking of myself +just then.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> You were thinking, then, of somebody?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes, I was. I was thinking of +George Wyndham. What a beautiful fellow he was! +so clever, so handsome, so charming: a man cut out +for success, by the very look of him. And then, all +at once, down and out: the old pack had got him! +How they hunted him! “Devolution!” Wouldn’t +they be glad to get that now?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> At the time it was impossible.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes, you accepted that, I know.... +It broke his heart.... Did you go and see +him—when he was dying?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I used to go and see him when I could—yes, +frequently; we had been great friends. Not +immediately—a month or two before, was the last +time, I think.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> And so with him, too, you could +say that you remained friends to the last! You +have had a wonderful career: friends, enemies, they +all loved you. Gladstone (who hadn’t as a rule much +love for his political opponents) made an exception +in your case.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Yes, I owed a great deal to his generous +friendship. It gave me confidence.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Harcourt, too, always spoke of +you with affection.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Oh, yes; we had a brotherly feeling +about Rosebery, you know.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN</span> (<i>ignoring his diversion</i>). Randolph +hadn’t though. He was bitter.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Randolph was a performer who just +once exceeded his promise, and then could never get +back to it. That was his tragedy. Strange how, +when he lost his following, his brilliancy all went with +it.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes, it was strange, in one so +independent of others. He had a great faculty, at one +time, for not caring, for being (or seeming) ruthless. +It’s a gift that a politician must envy. It hasn’t +been my way to lose my heart in politics: it’s not +safe. But—you charmed me.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>There is an implication here that the quiet +tone has not obscured. And so the direct +question comes</i>:)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Chamberlain, I must ask. What is there +between us?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Nothing—nothing now at all—or +very little.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> No, no; you are too sincere to pretend +to misunderstand me like that.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> In politics can one afford to be +quite—sincere? Openly, I mean?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> You have been—far more than others +I could name.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> That is a friendly judgment. +Others wouldn’t say so. If a man stays in politics +till he ceases to be important, while others remain +important, there’s bound to be a change of relations.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> In our case I don’t admit that it has +happened.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Don’t you? You were our party-leader. +I broke away; so you had to break me. +From your point of view you were right. I thought +I knew the game better than you. I made a mistake.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Do you mean, then, that you intended +to break <em>me</em>?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Oh, no. But I meant to—persuade +you.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> My view is that you did—very thoroughly. +Surely I went a long way—conceded a +great deal.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> “Half a sheet of note-paper” was +the measure of it. Yes, that speech was a great +success, and you remained our leader. But your +halving of that sheet was the beginning of—my +defeat, your victory.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I don’t recognise either. At this moment +we are both defeated, in a sense: out of office, that is +to say.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes, but you will come back. I +shan’t.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> But—in all its essentials—what you stand +for will.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> As a hang-fire, perhaps, while +parties temporise and readjust themselves to a new +balance. But never the same thing again. The time +for it has gone. I missed it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> You mustn’t be depressed, Chamberlain. +Great policies, new orientations, need careful +nursing—testing too. Conditions are changing very +rapidly.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Mine are getting worse. I have +two nurses now—night and day: and I obey orders.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> You do well to remind me. You shouldn’t +have let me tire you.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And so saying he rises.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> You don’t. You used to, now and +then, when we didn’t agree. You had the deliberate +mind, your own fixed rate of progression: one couldn’t +hurry you. And your semitones, and semicircles, +and semi-quavers used sometimes to worry me, I own. +They don’t now: having become a monotone myself, +I acquiesce. <em>I’m</em> the slow one, now: you’ve set me +my pace.... Here I sit, stock still.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> (<i>lightly diverting the conversation from its +impending embarrassment</i>). With your old associates +still round you, I see!</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And he touches a trail of blossom admiringly, +as he continues</i>:)</p> +</div> + +<p>They, at least, in their reflected glory, look flourishing; +for they, too, have had a share in your career, +have they not?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes, they helped me to get into +<cite>Punch</cite>, I suppose, if not into Parliament. Yet, I +never thought of it, till it happened—’twas a mere +accident. Would you like to take one with you?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I don’t usually so efface myself, but I +will with pleasure. This one is quite exquisite. May +I? Thanks (<i>and the glory of it goes to his buttonhole</i>). +I notice, too, that it has a scent.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes, that is a new kind, hard to +rear. There are very few of it in England yet, and +nowhere growing so well as they do here.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> That is so like you, Chamberlain—you +are the born expert; everything you touch—it’s in +your blood. Whatever you have done, you have +done successfully.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> So I have your word for it. I +was saying to Collins this morning that as a type of +the really successful man you had beaten me.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I—a type of success? My dear Chamberlain! +In my wildest dreams, I aim only at safety; +and if my hesitations have sometimes distressed +you, they have been far more distressing to myself. +You yourself, in a moment of friendly candour, once +described me (so I was told) as the champion stick-in-the-mud.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> So I did, and it’s true. But I +said “champion.” If you hadn’t been such a +champion at it, the mud would have swallowed you +up alive. Instead of that, you have made it a tower +of defence against your enemies. That’s why I +regard you not only as so successful, but so British.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> May I, at least, claim that even for self-defence +I have not slung it at my opponents?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> No. Why waste it? It’s your +use, not your misuse of it that I so admire. If you +hadn’t been such a wonderful politician, you might +have been a great statesman.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Doesn’t that rather indicate failure?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> No. Sometimes the political world +has no use for statesmen—except to down them. +Sometimes it prefers politicians, and perhaps rightly. +Every age makes its own peculiar requirements; +and those who find out when the political line is the +better one to follow, are the successful ones. You +and I have been—politicians; let’s be honest and +own it. And now my particular politics are over. +Circumstances have emptied me out. That’s different +from mere failure. Great statesmen have been +failures; we’ve seen them go down, you and I—too +big, too far-seeing for their day. But they went +down <em>full</em>, with all the weight of their great convictions +and principles still to their credit. I’m empty. +Time has played me out. That’s the difference.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I am confident that history will give a +different verdict.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Will it? When exactly does +history begin to get written? Is a man’s reputation +for statesmanship safe, even after a hundred years? +What about Pitt? Can one be so sure of him now? +His European policy may have been a blunder; his +great work in Ireland may yet have to be reversed.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> In reversed circumstances, that may +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63"></span>become logical. But what has held good for a hundred +year, I should incline to regard as statesmanship.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> “Held good”? Fetters a man +can’t break “hold good”; but they make a prisoner +of him all the same. Policies have done that to nations +before now. But would you, on that score, say of +them that they have held good?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> But let me understand, my dear Chamberlain, +what exactly in Pitt’s policy you now question?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Nothing: I can’t see far enough +ahead to question anything. I only say, when does +history begin to get written? We don’t know.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> What more can one do than direct it for +the generation in which one lives? That, it seems to +me, is our main responsibility.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Well, that’s what you and I have +done. How? Mainly by pulling down bigger men +than ourselves. Randolph, Parnell, Gladstone—we +got the better of them, didn’t we? Have you never +wondered why men of genius get sent into the world—only +to be defeated? Gladstone was a bigger man +than the whole lot of us; but we pulled him down—and +I enjoyed doing it. Parnell, for all his limitations, +was a great man. Well, we got him down too. +And I confess that gave me satisfaction. You helped +to pull Randolph down; but you didn’t enjoy doing +it. That’s where you and I were different.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I helped?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Yes; it had to be done. And you +were sorry for him while you did it—just as you were +sorry for Wyndham.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> But I did nothing!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Quite so. He came down here +to fight us in the Central division, and the Conservatives +were keen for it. It was touch and go: Unionists +were not in such close alliance then; he might +have succeeded. You did nothing; wouldn’t back +him. (Quite right, from my point of view.) Randolph +went down: never the same man again.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> But, my dear Chamberlain, we had our +agreed compact.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> An official understanding, certainly. +But that didn’t prevent me from going to the Round-Table +conference. That also was touch and go; +it might have succeeded. Where would our compact +have been, then?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> The Round-Table was merely an interrogation +covering a forlorn hope. It failed because +you remained loyal to your convictions.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> It failed because one day two of +us lost our tempers—one bragged, the other bullied. +That was the real reason. If Gladstone had given me +a large enough hand over his first Bill, d’you suppose +I shouldn’t have been a Home Ruler? I was to +begin with, remember.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Standing for a very different Bill, I +imagine.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Which you would still have opposed. +But I should have won.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Certainly, if we had lost you, it would +have made a difference.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> I was younger then: I’d more push +in me. But you would have let me go, all the same. +Yes, I’ve always admired your courage when the +odds were against you.... So, when the time for +it came, you pulled me down too. It had to be done.... +And here I am.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> My dear Chamberlain, you distress me +deeply!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Of course I do. D’you think I +haven’t distressed myself too? Do I look like a man +who hasn’t been through anything?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> Then—there is a cloud between us, after +all.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> No. I see you clearly; I see +myself clearly. There’s no cloud about it; it’s all +sharp, and clear, and hard—hard as nails. And +I’ve been able to put it into words—that now you +understand. Poor Randolph! Do you remember +how his tongue stumbled, and tripped him, the last +time he spoke in the House? And I saw you looking +on, pitying him. You’d got a kind side to you, for +all your efficiency. Men like you for that—that +charm.... It’s been a great asset to you. Parnell, +how he tried all his life to make a speech and couldn’t. +But what he said didn’t matter—there was the man! +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66"></span>What a force he might have been—was! What a +Samson, when he pulled the whole Irish Party down—got +them all on top of him to pull with him. What +d’you think he was doing then? Trying to give his +Irish nation a soul! It looked like pride, pique, +mere wanton destruction; but it was a great idea. +And if ever they rise to it—if ever the whole Irish +nation puts its back to the wall as Parnell wanted it to +do then—shakes off dependence, alliance, conciliation, +compromise, it may beat us yet! They were afraid +of defeat. That’s why we won. A cause or a nation +that fears no defeat—nor any number of them—that’s +what wins in the long run. But does any such +nation—any such cause exist? I’m not sure.... +I’m not really sure of anything now, only this: that +it’s better not to live too long after one has failed. +To go on living then—is the worst failure of all.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>As he thus talks himself out, his auditor’s +solicitous concern has continually increased; +and now when, for the first time, +the voice breaks with exhaustion and +emotion, the other, half-rising from his +seat, interposes with gentle but insistent +urgency.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> My dear Chamberlain, you are overtaxing +your strength; you are doing yourself harm. You +ought not to go on. Stop, I do beg of you!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Stop? Why stop? What does it +matter now?</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>But even as he speaks, mind and will cease +to contest the point where physical energy +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67"></span>fails. His manner changes, his voice +becomes dull and listless of tone.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p>Oh, yes ... yes. You are quite right. It’s +time. I’m under orders now. Would you mind—the +bell?</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Then, as the other is about to rise, he perceives +that the Nurse has already entered, and +now stands, unobtrusive but firm, awaiting +the moment to reassert her sway.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p class="unindent">Oh, it’s not necessary. There’s the Nurse come +again, to remind me that I mustn’t tire myself in +tiring you.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And so, under the presiding eye of professional +attendance, the Visitor rises and advances +to take his leave.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p class="unindent">Thank you—for coming. Thank you—for hearing +me so patiently.... You always did that, even +though it made no difference.... I wonder—shall +I ever see you again?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> You shall. I promise.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> I wonder.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> I assure you, I shall make a point of it. +Believe me, I am very grateful for this opportunity +you have given me; and even more am I grateful +for all your long loyalty in the past. Through all +differences, through all difficulties, I have felt that +you were indeed a friend. So, till we meet again, my +dear Chamberlain, good-bye!</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>The two hands meet and part, while the Nurse +moves forward to resume her professional +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68"></span>duties. The Distinguished Visitor begins +to retire.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> Good-bye.... You can find +your way?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">DIST. V.</span> (<i>turning gracefully as he goes</i>). Perfectly!</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And treating the door with the same perfection +of courtesy as he treats all with whom he +comes in contact, he goes to take his leave +of other members of the family. The door +closes; the Nurse is punching the pillows; +Chamberlain speaks</i>:)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CHAMBERLAIN.</span> So that’s the end, eh?... +Charming fellow!</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And so saying, he settles back to the inattention +of life to which he has become +accustomed.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69"></span></p> +<p class="right muchlarger" id="Instrument"> + The Instrument +</p> +</div> + + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70"></span></p> + <h3 class="nobreak"> + Dramatis Personæ + </h3> +</div> + +<div class="indent15"> +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">Woodrow Wilson</span><br> +(<i>Ex-President of the United States of America</i>).</p> + +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">Mr. Tumulty</span> (<i>His Secretary</i>).</p> + +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">A Gracious Presence.</span></p> + +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">An Attendant.</span></p> +</div> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71"></span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Instrument"> + The Instrument + </h2> +</div> + +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>Washington. March 4th, 1921.</i></p> + +<p class="hanging"><i>Through the large windows of this rather stiffly +composed sitting-room Washington conveys an +ample and not unimpressive view of its official +character. The distant architecture, rising out +of trees, is almost beautiful, and would be quite, +if only it could manage to look a little less self-satisfied +and prosperous. Outside is a jubilant +spring day; inside something which much more +resembles the wintering of autumn. For though +this is an entry over which the door has just +opened and closed, it is in fact an exit, final and +complete, from the stage of world-politics, made +by one who in his day occupied a commanding +position of authority and power. That day is now +over. In the distance an occasional blare of brass +and the beat of drums tells that processions are still +moving through the streets of the capital, celebrating +the inauguration of the new President. It is the +kind of noise which America knows how to make; +a sound of triumph insistent and strained, having +in it no beauty and no joy.</i></p> + +<p class="hanging"><i>The Ex-President moves slowly across the room, bearing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72"></span>heavily to one side upon his stick, to the other +upon the proudly protecting arm of his friend, Mr. +Secretary Tumulty. Into the first comfortable +chair that offers he lets himself down by slow and +painful degrees, lays his stick carefully aside, then +begins very deliberately to pull off his gloves. When +that is done, only then allowing himself complete +relaxation, he sinks back in his chair, and in a +voice of resigned weariness speaks.</i></p> + +<p><abbr title="Ex-President"><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span></abbr> So ... that’s over!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> It hasn’t tired you too much, I hope?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Too much for what, my dear Tumulty? +I’ve time to be tired now. What else, except to be +tired, is there left for me to do?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> Obey doctor’s orders.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> He let me go.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>shrewdly</i>). You would have gone in +any case.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Yes.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Tumulty adjusts the cushions at his back.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p>Thank you.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>seating himself</i>). Well, Governor, now +you’ve seen him in place, what do you think of him?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Oh, I find him—quite—what I expected +him to be. I think he means well.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> A new President always does.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> (<i>slowly pondering his words</i>). Yes ... +that’s true ... “means well.”</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>tactfully providing diversion</i>). The big +crowd outside was very friendly, I thought.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Yes ... couldn’t have been friendlier.... +It let me alone.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> Well, of course, they’d come mainly +to see the new President.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Of course. So had I. Yes, I believe +Harding’s a good man. He was very kind, very considerate. +I feel grateful.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>with rich emotion</i>). That’s how a good +many of us are feeling to you, Governor: to-day +very specially. It’s what I’ve come back to say.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> That’s very good of you. We’ve had—differences +of opinion; but you’ve always been loyal.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> I think, President—— Forgive me; the +word slipped out.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> No matter.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> I think there’s been more loyalty—at +heart—than you know. Behind all our differences, +in the party (as, with such big issues, couldn’t be +avoided)—well; they didn’t cut so deep as they +seemed to. They were all proud of you, even though +we couldn’t always agree. Of course there’ve been +exceptions.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> I don’t want to judge the exceptions +now (as perhaps I have done in the past) more hardly +than I judge myself.... Tumulty, I’ve failed.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>extenuatingly</i>). In a way—yes: for a +time, no doubt.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Absolutely.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> I don’t agree.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Because you don’t know.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> Governor, I know a good deal.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Oh, yes; you’ve been a right hand to +me—all through. Others weren’t. So I had to +leave them alone, and—be alone. When I made +that choice, it seemed not to matter: my case was +so strong—and I had such faith in it! It was that +did for me!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> Chief, I’m not out to argue with you—to +make you more tired than you are already. But if +I don’t say anything, please don’t think I’m agreeing +with you.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> I’m accustomed to people not agreeing +with me, Tumulty.... Yes: too much faith—not +in what I stood for, but in myself: perhaps—though +there I’m not so sure—perhaps too little in +others. To some I gave too much: and the mischief +was done before I knew.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> You don’t need to name him, President.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> I don’t need to name anyone now. Sometimes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75"></span>a man may know his own points of weakness +too well—guard against them to excess, be over-cautious +because of them; and then, trying to correct +himself, just for once he’s not cautious enough. But +where I failed was in getting the loyalty and co-operation +of those who didn’t agree with me so thoroughly +as you did. And I ought to have done it; +for that is a part of government. Your good executive +is the man who gets all fish into his net. I failed: +I caught some good men, but I let others go. There +was fine material to my hand which I didn’t recognise, +or didn’t use so well as I should have done. I +hadn’t the faculty of letting others think for me: +when I tried, it went badly; they didn’t respond. +So—I did all myself.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>airing himself a little</i>). You always +listened to <em>me</em>, Governor.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Yes, Tumulty, yes. And you weren’t +offended when I—didn’t pay any attention.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> When you <em>had</em> paid attention, you mean.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Perhaps I do. My way of paying attention +has struck others differently. They think I’m +one who doesn’t listen—who doesn’t want to listen. +It’s a terrible thing, Tumulty, when one sees and +knows the truth so absolutely, but cannot convince +others. That’s been my fate: to be so sure that I +was right (I’m as sure of that now as ever) and yet +to fail. Here—there—it has been always the same. +I went over to Paris thinking to save the Peace: +there came a point when I thought it was saved: +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76"></span>it would have been had the Senate backed me—it +could have been done then. But when I put the +case to which already we stood pledged, I convinced +nobody. They did not want justice to be done.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> But you had a great following, Governor. +You had a wonderful reception when you got +to Paris.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Yes: in London too. It seemed then +as if people were only waiting to be led. But I’m +talking of the politicians now. There was no room +for conviction there; each must stick to his brief. +That’s what wrecked us. Not one—not one could I +get to own that the right thing was the wise thing to +do: that to be just and fear not was the real policy +which would have saved Europe—and the world.... +Look at it now! Step by step, their failure is coming +home to them; but still it is only as failure that +they see it—mere human inability to surmount +insuperable difficulties: the greed, the folly, the +injustice, the blindness, the cruelty of it they don’t +see. And the people don’t teach it them. They +can’t. No nation—no victorious nation—has gotten +it at heart to say, “We, too, have sinned.” Lest +such a thing should ever be said or thought, one of +the terms of peace was to hand over all the blame; +so, when the enemy signed the receipt of it, the rest +were acquitted. And in that solemn farce the Allies +found satisfaction! What a picture for posterity! +And when they point and laugh, I shall be there with +the rest. It’s our self-righteousness has undone us, +Tumulty; it’s that which has made us blind and hard—and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77"></span>dishonest: for there has been dishonesty too. +Because we were exacting reparations for a great +wrong, we didn’t mind being unjust to the wrongdoer. +And so, in Paris, we spent months, arguing, prevaricating, +manœuvring, so as to pretend that none had +had any share in bringing the evil about. When I +spoke for considerate justice, there was no living force +behind me in that council of the Nations. They wanted +their revenge, and now they’ve got it: and look what +it is costing them!</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And then the door opens, and an Attendant +enters, carrying a covered cup upon a +tray. Upon this intrusion the Ex-President +turns a little grimly; but before +he can speak, Tumulty interposes.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> You’ll forgive this little interruption, +Governor: I got domestic orders to see that you took +it.... You will?</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>The dictatorial expression softens: with a +look of mild resignation the Ex-President +touches the table for the tray to be set +down. And when the Attendant has +gone, he continues</i>:)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> No, they wouldn’t believe me when I +said that to be revengeful would cost more than +to be forgiving. And still they won’t believe that +the trouble they are now in comes—not from the +destructiveness of the War, but from their own destruction +of the Peace. I had the truth in me; but +I failed. I was a voice crying into the void—a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78"></span>President without a people to back me: a dictator—of +words! And they knew that my time was short, +and that I had no power of appeal—because the +heart of my people was not with me! If they had +any doubt before, the vote of the Senate told them.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> You said “the people,” Governor?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> The people’s choice, Tumulty. The +vote <em>for</em> the Senate, and the vote <em>of</em> the Senate: +where’s the difference?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> Still, I don’t think you know how many +were with you right through: and I’m not speaking +only of our own people. Over there it was your +stand gave hope to the best of them, so long as hope +was possible. But they were all so busy holding their +breath, maybe they didn’t make noise enough. +Anyway—seems you didn’t hear ’em.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> You can’t reproach me with it, +Tumulty——</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>expostulant</i>). I’m not doing that, Governor!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> ——more than I reproach myself. If that +were true, then it was my business to know it. But +what I ought to have known I realised too late. When +I heard those shouting crowds—yes, then, for a while, +I thought it did mean—victory. But in the Conference +at Versailles—Paris—I was in another world: +the shouting died out, and I was alone.... I hadn’t +expected to be alone—in there, I mean. I had +reckoned—was it wrong?—on honour counting among +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79"></span>those in high places of authority for more than it +did. We went in pledged up to the hilt: not in detail, +not in legal terms, not as politicians, perhaps; but +as men of honour—speaking each for the honour of +our own nation. And that wasn’t enough; for whom +people stand pledged twice over—first in secret, then +publicly—it’s difficult to make them face where +honour lies.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> You mean the secret treaties, Governor. +That’s been a puzzle to many of us: what you knew +about them, I mean.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Tumulty, I willed not to know them. +Rumour of them reached me, of course. Had I +then given them a hearing, I might have been charged +with complicity, the silence which gave consent. +Many were anxious that I should know of them—at a +time when opposition would have been very difficult—premature, +outside my province. And so—by not +knowing—I was free: and when I stated the basis +of the Peace terms, I stated them (and I was secure +then in my power to do so) in terms which should in +honour have made those secret treaties no longer +tenable. There was my first great error—I acknowledge +it, Tumulty: that I believed in honour.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>reluctantly</i>). Yes ... I see that. +But it’s the sort of thing one can only see after it has +happened. You must have got a pretty deep-down +insight into character, Governor, when you came to +the top of things over there, to the top people, I mean.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> (<i>after a pause, reflectively</i>). Yes, it was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80"></span>very interesting, when one got accustomed to it: +highly selected humanity, representative of things—it +was afraid of. There daily sat four of us—if one +counts heads only; but we were, in fact, six, or seven, +or eight characters. And the characters sprang up +and choked us. Patriots, statesmen? oh yes! but +also “careerists.” Men whose future depends on +the popular vote can’t always be themselves—at +least, it seemed not; for we should then have ceased +to be “representative,” and it was as representatives +that we had come. And so one would sit and listen, +and watch—one person, and two characters. Lloyd +George, when his imagination was not swamped in +self-satisfaction, was quite evangelical to listen to—sometimes. +But there he was representative—not of +principles, nor of those visionary sparks which he +struck so easily and threw off like matches, but of a +successful election cry for “hanging the Kaiser” and +“making Germany pay.” And having got his +majority, he and his majority had become one. But +for that, he might—he just might ... yet who can +tell? That tied him. I was alone.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>coming nobly to the rescue</i>). Then take +this from me, Governor: for a man all alone you +did wonders.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> I did my best; but I failed. My +first mistake was when I believed in honour; my +second, when I let them shut the doors. Yes, to +that he got me to agree. Clever, clever; that was +his first win.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> Who, Governor?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> (<i>with a dry laugh</i>). The man who told +me he was on my side. The reason?—a kindly means +of saving faces for those whom he and I were going +to “persuade”—of making the “climb-down” easier +for them! That seemed a helpful, charitable sort of +reason, didn’t it? One it would have been hard to +refuse. I didn’t; so the doors were shut to cover defeat +and disappointment over the secret treaties. Then +they had me: three against one! And their weight +told—quite apart from mere argument; for each had +behind him the popular voice (and when one lost it—you +may remember—another came, and took his +place). But against me the popular voice had shut +its mouth: I, too, was an electioneer—a defeated +one. Of my lease of power then, less than a year +remained. After the Senate elections I was nothing. +In Paris they knew it: and I could see in their eyes +that they were glad. Yes, <em>he</em> was glad, too.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>As he speaks, his head sinks in depression. +There is a pause.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>in his best sick-bed manner</i>). Governor, +don’t you think that you’d better rest now?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> (<i>ignoring the remark</i>). And so the old +secret diplomacy, balancing for power, with war as +the only sure end of it, came back to life; and I—pledged +to its secrecies with the rest—I had to stay +dumb. I was a drowning man, then, Tumulty—clutching +at straws, till I became an adept at it. +There, perhaps, as you say, I did do “wonders”—of +a kind: all I could, anyway. That was my plight, +while there in Paris we held high court, and banqueted, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82"></span>and drank healths from dead men’s skulls. Did +nobody guess—outside—what was going on? I gave +one signal that I thought was plain enough, when I +sent for the <em>George Washington</em> to bring me home +again. But, though I listened for it then, there +seemed no response. People were so busy, you say, +holding their breath; and <em>that</em> I couldn’t hear.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>zealous, in a pause, to show his interest</i>). +Well, Governor, well?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> And then, rather than let me so go and +spoil the general effect (the one power still left to me!), +they began to make concessions—concessions which, +I see now, didn’t amount to much; and so they persuaded +me, and I stayed on, and signed my failure +with the rest.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>for a diversion pointing to the covered cup</i>). +Pardon me, Governor, you must obey orders, you +know. They are not mine.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> (<i>taking up the cup with a dry smile</i>). Executive +authority has taught me that obeying orders +is much simpler than giving them: you know when +you’ve got them done. (<i>Removing the cover, he drains +the cup and sets it down again.</i>) There! now let your +conscience be at rest. (<i>After a pause he resumes</i>:) +Tumulty, when I faced failure, when I knew that I +had failed—— Yes; don’t trouble to contradict me. +I know, dear friend, I know that you don’t agree; +and, God bless you! I also know why.... When +I knew <em>that</em>, after the whole thing was over, and I +was out again and free, do you suppose I wasn’t +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83"></span>tempted to go out and cry the truth (as some were +expecting and wishing for it to be cried) in the ears +of the whole world?—let all know that I <em>had</em> failed, +and so—that way at least—separate myself from the +Evil Thing which there sat smiling at itself in its +Hall of Mirrors—seeing no frustrate ghosts, no death’s +heads at that feast, as I saw them?... I came out +a haunted man—all the more because those I was +amongst didn’t believe in ghosts—not then. People +who have been overwhelmingly victorious in a great +war find that difficult. But they will—some day.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> Well, Governor, and supposing you +had yielded to this “Temptation,” as you call it, +what’s the proposition?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> This ... I had one power—one weapon, +still left to me unimpaired: to speak the truth, +the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help +me God! And the proposition is just this: whether +to be stark honest, even against the apparent interests +of the very cause you are out to plead, is not in the +long run the surest way—if it be of God—to help it +make good: whether defeat, with the whole truth +told, isn’t better than defeat hidden away and disowned, +in the hope that something may yet come of it. +You may get a truer judgment that way in the end; +though at the time it may seem otherwise. Yes, +I <em>was</em> tempted to cry it aloud—to make a clean breast +of it—to say, “We, the Governments of the People, +the Democracies, the Free Nations of the world, have +failed—have lost the peace which we could have won, +because we would not give up the things which we +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84"></span>loved so much better—profit, revenge, our own too +good opinion of ourselves, our own self-righteous +judgment of others.”... I was tempted to it; and +yet it has been charged against me that I would not +admit failure because I wanted to save my face.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> You have never been much scared by +what people <em>said</em>, Governor. That didn’t count, I +reckon.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> No, Tumulty; but this did—that where +all seemed dark, I still saw light. Down there, among +the wreckage, something was left—an instrument +of which I thought I saw the full future possibility +more clearly than others. I believe I do still. And +my main thought then was—how best to secure that +one thing to which, half blindly, they had agreed. To +win that, I was willing to give up my soul.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> It’s the Covenant, you mean, Governor?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Yes, the Covenant! That at least was +won—seemed won—whatever else was lost. Some +of them were willing to let me have it only because +they themselves believed it would prove useless—just +to save my face for all I had to give up in exchange. +And so I—let them “save my face” for +me; let them think that it was so—just to give this +one thing its chance. And so, for that, and for that +alone, I bound myself to the Treaty—stood pledged +to do my utmost to see it through: a different thing, +that, from telling the truth. Was I wrong, Tumulty—was +I wrong?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> No, no, Governor! You did everything +a man could—under the circumstances.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> I have said that often to myself: and +I hope, sometimes, that it may be true. But a man +who gives up anything of the truth, as he sees it, for +reasons however good—can he ever be sure of himself +again?... It’s a new thing for me to ask another +man if I have done wrong. But that’s the way I +feel: I don’t myself know. And once, once, I was +so sure—that I was right, and that I should win!</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>The situation has now become one which the +friendly Tumulty would like to control, +but cannot. As a “soul-stirring revelation +of character” he finds it, no doubt, +immensely interesting; but to be thus +made Father Confessor of the man whom +he has followed with humble and dog-like +devotion, knocks the bottom out of his world +altogether. Moreover, he has received +“domestic orders,” and is not properly +obeying them; and so, dominated by the +stronger will, he glances apprehensively, +now and again, toward the door, hoping +that it may open and bring relief, but +himself sits and does nothing. Meanwhile, +insistent and remorseless at self-examination, +the Ex-President continues to wear +himself out.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p>When a man comes really to himself, Tumulty—sees +clearly within—does it help him toward seeing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86"></span>also what lies outside, beyond, and ahead—make +him more sure that, as regards others, he has done +right? I don’t know—I would give my life to know—if +what I did, when all else had failed, was best. +The political forces, prejudices, antagonisms, the +powers of evil around me, have been so dubiously +deceiving and dark, that I do not know now whether +to have been uncompromisingly true to principle +would have done any good. Perhaps after to-day +I shall know better; perhaps only now have I become +qualified to judge—a free man at last. Only in the +secrecy of my own heart—now finally removed from +all the interests, ambitions, fears, which gather about +a man’s public career—I do most earnestly and +humbly pray that in this one thing I did right—not +to discredit myself too utterly in the world’s eyes, +so that <em>that</em>, at least, might live.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>doing his best</i>). It <em>will</em> live, Governor!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> It <em>may</em>. But in what hands have I had +to leave it? To men who have no faith in it, to men +who dislike it, to men who will try persistently, +sedulously, day in, day out, to turn it back to their +own selfish ends. There, in those hands, its fate will +lie—perhaps for a generation to come. And it is +only by faith in the common people, not in their +politicians, that I dare look forward and hope that +the instrument—blunt and one-sided though it be +now—may yet become mighty and two-edged and +sharp, a sword in the hand of a giant—of one whose +balances are those of justice, not of power. But <em>I</em> +shan’t see it, Tumulty; it won’t be in my day. If +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87"></span>America had come in, I should! That was the keystone +of my policy: that gone, my policy has failed. +That was my faith—is still; for faith can live on when +policies lie dead. Think what it might have been! +America, with that weapon to her hand, could have +shaped the world’s future, made it a democracy of +free nations—image and superscription no longer +Cæsar’s—but Man’s. That—that was what I saw!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> Perhaps they saw it too, Governor. If +they did, it might help to explain matters.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> The Covenant was the instrument—and +would have sufficed. So organised, America’s +voice in all future contentions would have been too +strong, and just, and decisive to be gainsayed. Then +life would have been in it, then it would have prospered +and become mighty. It would have meant—within +a generation from now—world-peace. Of that I +had a sure sense: it would have come. To make +that possible, what I had to yield to present jealousies, +discords, blindness, was of no account—only look +far enough! For there, in the future, was the instrument +for correcting them—the people’s vote for +the first time internationally applied. And I had in +me such faith that America, secure of her place in +the world’s councils, would have wrought to make +justice international, and peace no longer a dream! +Was I wrong, Tumulty, was I wrong?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>expanding himself</i>). No man who believes +in America as much as I do will ever say +you were wrong, Governor.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88"></span></p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> But when America stood out—when +the Senate refused to ratify—then I <em>was</em> wrong. For +then, what I had backed—all that remained then—was +a thing of shreds and patches. Nobody can think +worse of the Treaty than I do with America out of it, +with the Covenant left the one-sided and precarious +thing it now is. Had we only been in it—the rest +wouldn’t have mattered. Call it a dung-heap, if +you like; yet out of it would have sprung life. It +may still; but <em>I</em> shan’t see it, Tumulty; and that +vision, which was then so clear, has become a doubt. +Was I wrong—was I wrong to pretend that I had +won anything worth winning? Would it not have +been better to say “I have failed”?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> Forgive me, Governor: you are looking +at things from a tired-out mind. That’s not fair, +you know.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> But if you knew, oh, if you knew against +what odds I fought even to get that! They knew +that they had got me down; and the only card left +me at last was their own reluctance to let a discredited +President go back to his own people and show them +his empty hands, and tell them that he had failed. So +a bargain was struck, and this one thing was given +me, that peradventure it might have life—if I, for my +part, would come back here and plead the ratification +of the Treaty which they—and I—had made. +Could I have done that with any effect, had I said +that in almost everything I had failed?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> Chief, I think you did right. But I +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89"></span>still feel I’m up a back street. How could things +have come to fail as much as they did? After all, +it was a just war.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Tumulty, I have been asking myself +whether there can be such a thing as a “just war.” +There can be—please God!—there must be sometimes +a just <em>cause</em> for war. When one sees great injustice +done, sees it backed by the power of a blindly militarised +nation, marching confidently to victory, then, +if justice has any place in the affairs of men, there is +sometimes just cause for war. But can there be—a +just war? I mean—when the will to war takes +hold of a people—does it remain the same people? +Does war in its hands remain an instrument that can +be justly used? Can it be waged justly? Can it +be won justly? Can it, having been won, make to +a just peace? No! Something happens: there +comes a change; war in a people’s mind drives justice +out.... Can soldiers fight without “seeing red”—can +a nation? Not when nations have to fight +on the tremendous scale of modern war. Then they +are like those monstrous mechanisms of long-range +destructiveness, which we so falsely call “weapons +of precision,” but which are in fact so horribly +unprecise that, once let loose, we cannot know what +lives of harmlessness, of innocence, of virtue, they +are going to destroy. You find your range, you fix +your elevation, you touch a button: you hear your +gun go off. And over there, among the unarmed—the +weak, the defenceless, the infirm—it has done—what? +Singled out for destruction what life or lives; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90"></span>ten, twenty, a hundred?—you do not know. So +with nations, when once they have gone to war; +their imprecision becomes—horrible; though the +cause of your war may be just.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Tumulty gives a profound nod, paying his +chief the compliment of letting it be seen +that he is causing him to think deeply.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p>That’s what happened here. Do you remember, +did you realise, Tumulty, what a power my voice was +in the world—till we went in?—that, because I had +the power to keep them back from war (for there my +constitutional prerogative was absolute), even my +opponents had to give weight to my words. They +were angry, impatient, but they had to obey. And, +because they could not help themselves, they accepted +point by point my building up of the justice of our +cause. They didn’t care for justice; but I spoke +for the Nation then; and, with justice as my one end, +I drove home my point. And then—we went in. +After that, justice became vengeance. When our +men went over the trenches, fighting with short arms, +“<cite>Lusitania!</cite>” was their cry: and they took few prisoners—you +know that, Tumulty.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Over that point the Ex-President pauses, +though Tumulty sees no special reason +why he should pause.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p>The <i>Lusitania</i> had been sunk, and still we had +not gone to war, and no crowds came to cry it madly +outside the White House as they might have done—if +that was how they felt then. The <i>Lusitania</i> lies +at the bottom of the sea. There are proposals for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91"></span>salving her; but I think that there she will remain. +The salving might tell too much.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY.</span> You mean that talk about fuse caps +being on board might have been true? Would it +matter now?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Yes. It was a horrible thing in any +case—disproportionate, like most other acts of war—and +it did immeasurable harm to those who thought +to benefit. But this—I still only guess—might do +too much good—bring things a little nearer to +proportion again, which the Treaty did not try to do.... +What I’ve been realising these last two years +is a terrible thing. You go to war, you get up to it +from your knees—God driving you to it—unable, yes, +unable to do else. Your will is to do right, your cause +is just, you are a united nation, a people convinced, +glad, selfless, with hearts heroic and clean. And then +war takes hold of it, and it all changes under your +eyes; you see the heart of your people becoming +fouled, getting hard, self-righteous, revengeful. Your +cause remains, in theory, what it was at the beginning; +but it all goes to the Devil. And the Devil makes on +it a pile that he can make no otherwise—because of +the virtue that is in it, the love, the beauty, the heroism, +the giving-up of so much that man’s heart +desires. That’s where he scores! Look at all that +valiance, that beauty of life gone out to perish for a +cause it knows to be right; think of the generosity +of that giving by the young men; think of the +faithful courage of the women who steel themselves +to let them go; think of the increase of spirit and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92"></span>selflessness which everywhere rises to meet the +claim. All over the land which goes to war that is +happening (and in the enemy’s land it is the same), +making war a sacred and a holy thing. And having +got it so sanctified, then the Devil can do with it +almost what he likes. That’s what he has done, +Tumulty. If angels led horses by the bridle at the +Marne (as a pious legend tells), at Versailles the +Devil had his muzzled oxen treading out the corn. +And of those—I was one! Yes; war muzzles you. +You cannot tell the truth; if you did, it wouldn’t +be believed. And so, finally, comes peace; and over +that, too, the Devil runs up his flag—cross-bones +and a skull.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>struggling in the narrow path between +wrong and right</i>). But what else, Governor, is your +remedy? We had to go to war; we were left with +no choice in the matter.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> No, we <em>had</em> no choice. And what +others had any choice?—what people, I mean? But +that is what everyone—once we were at war—refused +to remember. And so we cried “<cite>Lusitania!</cite>” against +thousands of men who had no choice in the matter +at all. Remedy? There’s only one. Somehow we +must get men to believe that Christ wasn’t a mad +idealist when He preached His Sermon on the Mount; +that what He showed for the world’s salvation then +was not a sign only, but the very Instrument itself. +We’ve got to make men see that there’s something +in human nature waiting to respond to a new law. +There are two things breeding in the world—love +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93"></span>and hatred; breeding the one against the other. +And there’s fear making hatred breed fast, and there’s +fear making love breed slow. Even as things now +are, it has managed—it has just managed to keep +pace; but only just. If men were not afraid—Love +would win.</p> + +<p>That, I’ve come to see, is the simple remedy; but +it’s going to be the hardest thing to teach—because +all the world is so much afraid.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>And then, the worn, haggard man, having +thus talked himself out, there enters by +the benign intervention of Providence a +Gracious Presence, more confident than +he in her own ruling power. She moves +quietly toward them, and her voice, when +she speaks, is corrective of a situation +she does not approve.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">THE PRESENCE.</span> Mr. Tumulty ... my dear.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>Resting her hands on the back of the Ex-President’s +chair, she surveys them benevolently +but critically. Then her attention +is directed to the covered cup standing +on its tray.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p class="unindent">Have you taken your——</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> My medicine? Yes. Your orders came +through, and have been obeyed.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">THE PRESENCE.</span> It wasn’t medicine. I made it +myself.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Then I beg its pardon—and yours.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">THE PRESENCE.</span> Will you please to remember that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94"></span>your holiday began at twelve o’clock to-day? I’m +not going to allow any overtime now.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> That settles it, then, Tumulty. And +that means you are to go. I had just been saying, +my dear, how much simpler it was to obey orders +than to give and to get them obeyed.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">THE PRESENCE.</span> Getting them obeyed is quite +simple. It is merely a matter of how you give them.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> You see, Tumulty—it’s all a matter of +“how.”</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">THE PRESENCE.</span> There’s someone waiting to speak +to you on the ’phone: wants to know how you are. +I thought I would come and see first.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Who is it?</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">THE PRESENCE</span> (<i>indicating the receiver</i>). He’s there.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>The Ex-President reaches out his hand, +and Tumulty from an adjoining table +gives him the instrument. As he listens, +they stand watching him.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Oh, yes.... That’s very kind of him.... +Please will you tell the President, with my best +thanks, that I am greatly enjoying my holiday.... +Thank you.... Good-bye.</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>He gives the instrument back to the waiting +Tumulty.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">TUMULTY</span> (<i>with swelling bosom</i>). Governor, that +was a great answer!</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">EX-PRES.</span> Easily said, Tumulty. But is it true?</p> + +<div class="rightblock"> +<p class="hanging">(<i>But Tumulty’s breast is such a platform for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95"></span>the generous emotions that he does not +really care whether it is true or not. And +therein, between himself and his hero, lies +the difference. Grasping his fallen leader +forcefully by the hand and murmuring +his adieux in a voice of nobly controlled +emotion, he obeys the waiting eye of the +Gracious Presence, and goes. And as +she sees him serenely to the door, the +Ex-President looks ruefully at his painfully +oversqueezed hand, and begins +rubbing it softly. Even the touch of a +friend sometimes hurts.</i>)</p> + +<p>(<i>The door closes: the two are alone. She +who-must-be-obeyed stands looking at him +with a benevolent eye.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_96"></span></p> +<p class="center"> +<i>Printed in Great Britain</i><br> +<i>by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld.,</i><br> +<i>London and Aylesbury.</i> +</p> +</div> + +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter transnote"> + <h3> + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: + </h3> +<p>Obsolete and alternative spellings were not changed. The book +number on the second page is hand-written. Whether it was written by +the author, or someone else, is unknown.</p> + +<p>‘Make’ was changed to ‘may’ ... you <a href="#chg1">may</a> take him away ...</p> +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78736 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/78736-h/images/cover.jpg b/78736-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d9b5949 --- /dev/null +++ b/78736-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/78736-h/images/i_002.jpg b/78736-h/images/i_002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..80e625b --- /dev/null +++ b/78736-h/images/i_002.jpg diff --git a/78736-h/images/i_003.jpg b/78736-h/images/i_003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5778348 --- /dev/null +++ b/78736-h/images/i_003.jpg |
