MRS GEORGE. You prophesy falsely, Anthony: never in all my life
have I done anything that was not ordained for me. [More quietly]
Ive been myself. Ive not been afraid of myself. And at last I
have escaped from myself, and am become a voice for them that are
afraid to speak, and a cry for the hearts that break in silence.
SOAMES [whispering] Is she inspired?
THE BISHOP. Marvellous. Hush.
MRS GEORGE. I have earned the right to speak. I have dared: I have gone through: I have not fallen withered in the fire: I have come at last out beyond, to the back of Godspeed?
THE BISHOP. And what do you see there, at the back of Godspeed?
SOAMES [hungrily] Give us your message.
MRS GEORGE [with intensely sad reproach] When you loved me I gave you the whole sun and stars to play with. I gave you eternity in a single moment, strength of the mountains in one clasp of your arms, and the volume of all the seas in one impulse of your souls. A moment only; but was it not enough? Were you not paid then for all the rest of your struggle on earth? Must I mend your clothes and sweep your floors as well? Was it not enough? I paid the price without bargaining: I bore the children without flinching: was that a reason for heaping fresh burdens on me? I carried the child in my arms: must I carry the father too? When I opened the gates of paradise, were you blind? was it nothing to you? When all the stars sang in your ears and all the winds swept you into the heart of heaven, were you deaf? were you dull? was I no more to you than a bone to a dog? Was it not enough? We spent eternity together; and you ask me for a little lifetime more. We possessed all the universe together; and you ask me to give you my scanty wages as well. I have given you the greatest of all things; and you ask me to give you little things. I gave you your own soul: you ask me for my body as a plaything. Was it not enough? Was it not enough?
SOAMES. Do you understand this, my lord?
THE BISHOP. I have that advantage over you, Anthony, thanks to Alice. [He takes Mrs George's hand]. Your hand is very cold. Can you come down to earth? Do you remember who I am, and who you are?
MRS GEORGE. It was enough for me. I did not ask to meet you—to touch you—[the Bishop quickly releases her hand]. When you spoke to my soul years ago from your pulpit, you opened the doors of my salvation to me; and now they stand open for ever. It was enough: I have asked you for nothing since: I ask you for nothing now. I have lived: it is enough. I have had my wages; and I am ready for my work. I thank you and bless you and leave you. You are happier in that than I am; for when I do for men what you did for me, I have no thanks, and no blessing: I am their prey; and there is no rest from their loving and no mercy from their loathing.
THE BISHOP. You must take us as we are, Mrs Collins.
SOAMES. No. Take us as we are capable of becoming.
MRS GEORGE. Take me as I am: I ask no more. [She turns her head to the study door and cries] Yes: come in, come in.
Hotchkiss comes softly in from the study.
HOTCHKISS. Will you be so kind as to tell me whether I am dreaming? In there I have heard Mrs Collins saying the strangest things, and not a syllable from you two.
SOAMES. My lord; is this possession by the devil?
THE BISHOP. Or the ecstasy of a saint?
HOTCHKISS. Or the convulsion of the pythoness on the tripod?
THE BISHOP. May not the three be one?
MRS GEORGE [troubled] You are paining and tiring me with idle questions. You are dragging me back to myself. You are tormenting me with your evil dreams of saints and devils and—what was it?— [striving to fathom it] the pythoness—the pythoness—[giving it up] I dont understand. I am a woman: a human creature like yourselves. Will you not take me as I am?
SOAMES. Yes; but shall we take you and burn you?
THE BISHOP. Or take you and canonize you?
HOTCHKISS [gaily] Or take you as a matter of course? [Swiftly to the Bishop] We must get her out of this: it's dangerous. [Aloud to her] May I suggest that you shall be Anthony's devil and the Bishop's saint and my adored Polly? [Slipping behind her, he picks up her hand from her lap and kisses it over her shoulder].
MRS GEORGE [waking] What was that? Who kissed my hand? [To the Bishop, eagerly] Was it you? [He shakes his head. She is mortified]. I beg your pardon.
THE BISHOP. Not at all. I'm not repudiating that honor. Allow me [he kisses her hand].
MRS GEORGE. Thank you for that. It was not the sexton, was it?
SOAMES. I!
HOTCHKISS. It was I, Polly, your ever faithful.
MRS GEORGE [turning and seeing him] Let me catch you doing it again: thats all. How do you come there? I sent you away. [With great energy, becoming quite herself again] What the goodness gracious has been happening?
HOTCHKISS. As far as I can make out, you have been having a very charming and eloquent sort of fit.
MRS GEORGE [delighted] What! My second sight! [To the Bishop] Oh, how I have prayed that it might come to me if ever I met you! And now it has come. How stunning! You may believe every word I said: I cant remember it now; but it was something that was just bursting to be said; and so it laid hold of me and said itself. Thats how it is, you see.
Edith and Cecil Sykes come in through the tower. She has her hat on. Leo follows. They have evidently been out together. Sykes, with an unnatural air, half foolish, half rakish, as if he had lost all his self-respect and were determined not to let it prey on his spirits, throws himself into a chair at the end of the table near the hearth and thrusts his hands into his pockets, like Hogarth's Rake, without waiting for Edith to sit down. She sits in the railed chair. Leo takes the chair nearest the tower on the long side of the table, brooding, with closed lips.
THE BISHOP. Have you been out, my dear?
EDITH. Yes.
THE BISHOP. With Cecil?
EDITH. Yes.
THE BISHOP. Have you come to an understanding?
No reply. Blank silence.
SYKES. You had better tell them, Edie.
EDITH. Tell them yourself.
The General comes in from the garden.
THE GENERAL [coming forward to the table] Can anybody oblige me with some tobacco? Ive finished mine; and my nerves are still far from settled.
THE BISHOP. Wait a moment, Boxer. Cecil has something important to tell us.
SYKES. Weve done it. Thats all.
HOTCHKISS. Done what, Cecil?
SYKES. Well, what do you suppose?
EDITH. Got married, of course.
THE GENERAL. Married! Who gave you away?
SYKES [jerking his head towards the tower] This gentleman did.[Seeing that they do not understand, he looks round and sees that there is no one there]. Oh! I thought he came in with us. Hes gone downstairs, I suppose. The Beadle.
THE GENERAL. The Beadle! What the devil did he do that for?
SYKES. Oh, I dont know: I didnt make any bargain with him. [To Mrs George] How much ought I to give him, Mrs Collins?
MRS GEORGE. Five shillings. [To the Bishop] I want to rest for a moment: there! in your study. I saw it here [she touches her forehead].
THE BISHOP [opening the study door for her] By all means. Turn my brother out if he disturbs you. Soames: bring the letters out here.
SYKES. He wont be offended at my offering it, will he?
MRS GEORGE. Not he! He touches children with the mace to cure them of ringworm for fourpence apiece. [She goes into the study. Soames follows her].
THE GENERAL. Well, Edith, I'm a little disappointed, I must say. However, I'm glad it was done by somebody in a public uniform.
Mrs Bridgenorth and Lesbia come in through the tower. Mrs Bridgenorth makes for the Bishop. He goes to her, and they meet near the oak chest. Lesbia comes between Sykes and Edith.
THE BISHOP. Alice, my love, theyre married.
MRS BRIDGENORTH [placidly] Oh, well, thats all right. Better tell Collins.
Soames comes back from the study with his writing materials. He seats himself at the nearest end of the table and goes on with his work. Hotchkiss sits down in the next chair round the table corner, with his back to him.
LESBIA. You have both given in, have you?
EDITH. Not at all. We have provided for everything.
SOAMES. How?
EDITH. Before going to the church, we went to the office of that insurance company—whats its name, Cecil?
SYKES. The British Family Insurance Corporation. It insures you against poor relations and all sorts of family contingencies.
EDITH. It has consented to insure Cecil against libel actions brought against him on my account. It will give us specially low terms because I am a Bishop's daughter.
SYKES. And I have given Edie my solemn word that if I ever commit a crime I'll knock her down before a witness and go off to Brighton with another lady.
LESBIA. Thats what you call providing for everything! [She goes to the middle of the table on the garden side and sits down].
LEO. Do make him see there are no worms before he knocks you down, Edith. Wheres Rejjy?
REGINALD [coming in from the study] Here. Whats the matter?
LEO [springing up and flouncing round to him] Whats the matter! You may well ask. While Edie and Cecil were at the insurance office I took a taxy and went off to your lodgings; and a nice mess I found everything in. Your clothes are in a disgraceful state. Your liver pad has been made into a kettle-holder. Youre no more fit to be left to yourself than a one-year old baby.
REGINALD. Oh, I cant be bothered looking after things like that. I'm all right.
LEO. Youre not: youre a disgrace. You never consider that youre a disgrace to me: you think only of yourself. You must come home with me and be taken proper care of: my conscience will not allow me to let you live like a pig. [She arranges his necktie]. You must stay with me until I marry St John; and then we can adopt you or something.
REGINALD [breaking loose from her and stumping off past Hotchkiss towards the hearth] No, I'm dashed if I'll be adopted by St John. You can adopt him if you like.
HOTCHKISS [rising] I suggest that that would really be the better plan, Leo. Ive a confession to make to you. I'm not the man you took me for. Your objection to Rejjy was that he had low tastes.
REGINALD [turning] Was it? by George!
LEO. I said slovenly habits. I never thought he had really low tastes until I saw that woman in court. How he could have chosen such a creature and let her write to him after—
REGINALD. Is this fair? I never—
HOTCHKISS. Of course you didnt, Rejjy. Dont be silly, Leo. It's I who really have low tastes.
LEO. You!
HOTCHKISS. Ive fallen in love with a coal merchant's wife. I adore her. I would rather have one of her boot-laces than a lock of your hair. [He folds his arms and stands like a rock].
REGINALD. You damned scoundrel, how dare you throw my wife over like that before my face? [He seems on the point of assaulting Hotchkiss when Leo gets between them and draws Reginald away towards the study door].
LEO. Dont take any notice of him, Rejjy. Go at once and get that odious decree demolished or annulled or whatever it is. Tell Sir Gorell Barnes that I have changed my mind. [To Hotchkiss] I might have known that you were too clever to be really a gentleman. [She takes Reginald away to the oak chest and seats him there. He chuckles. Hotchkiss resumes his seat, brooding].
THE BISHOP. All the problems appear to be solving themselves.
LESBIA. Except mine.
THE GENERAL. But, my dear Lesbia, you see what has happened here to-day. [Coming a little nearer and bending his face towards hers] Now I put it to you, does it not show you the folly of not marrying?
LESBIA. No: I cant say it does. And [rising] you have been smoking again.
THE GENERAL. You drive me to it, Lesbia. I cant help it.
LESBIA [standing behind her chair with her hands on the back of it and looking radiant] Well, I wont scold you to-day. I feel in particularly good humor just now.
TIE GENERAL. May I ask why, Lesbia?
LESBIA. [drawing a large breath] To think that after all the dangers of the morning I am still unmarried! still independent! still my own mistress! still a glorious strong-minded old maid of old England!
Soames silently springs up and makes a long stretch from his end of the table to shake her hand across it.
THE GENERAL. Do you find any real happiness in being your own mistress? Would it not be more generous—would you not be happier as some one else's mistress—
LESBIA. Boxer!
THE GENERAL [rising, horrified] No, no, you must know, my dear Lesbia, that I was not using the word in its improper sense. I am sometimes unfortunate in my choice of expressions; but you know what I mean. I feel sure you would be happier as my wife.
LESBIA. I daresay I should, in a frowsy sort of way. But I prefer my dignity and my independence. I'm afraid I think this rage for happiness rather vulgar.
THE GENERAL. Oh, very well, Lesbia. I shall not ask you again. [He sits down huffily].
LESBIA. You will, Boxer; but it will be no use. [She also sits down again and puts her hand almost affectionately on his]. Some day I hope to make a friend of you; and then we shall get on very nicely.
THE GENERAL [starting up again] Ha! I think you are hard, Lesbia. I shall make a fool of myself if I remain here. Alice: I shall go into the garden for a while.
COLLINS [appearing in the tower] I think everything is in order now, maam.
THE GENERAL [going to him] Oh, by the way, could you oblige me [the rest of the sentence is lost in a whisper].
COLLINS. Certainly, General. [He takes out a tobacco pouch and hands it to the General, who takes it and goes into the garden].
LESBIA. I dont believe theres a man in England who really and truly loves his wife as much as he loves his pipe.
THE BISHOP. By the way, what has happened to the wedding party?
SYKES. I dont know. There wasnt a soul in the church when we were married except the pew opener and the curate who did the job.
EDITH. They had all gone home.
MRS BRIDGENORTH. But the bridesmaids?
COLLINS. Me and the beadle have been all over the place in a couple of taxies, maam; and weve collected them all. They were a good deal disappointed on account of their dresses, and thought it rather irregular; but theyve agreed to come to the breakfast. The truth is, theyre wild with curiosity to know how it all happened. The organist held on until the organ was nigh worn out, and himself worse than the organ. He asked me particularly to tell you, my lord, that he held back Mendelssohn till the very last; but when that was gone he thought he might as well go too. So he played God Save The King and cleared out the church. He's coming to the breakfast to explain.
LEO. Please remember, Collins, that there is no truth whatever in the rumor that I am separated from my husband, or that there is, or ever has been, anything between me and Mr Hotchkiss.
COLLINS. Bless you, maam! one could always see that. [To Mrs Bridgenorth] Will you receive here or in the hall, maam?
MRS BRIDGENORTH. In the hall. Alfred: you and Boxer must go there and be ready to keep the first arrivals talking till we come. We have to dress Edith. Come, Lesbia: come, Leo: we must all help. Now, Edith. [Lesbia, Leo, and Edith go out through the tower]. Collins: we shall want you when Miss Edith's dressed to look over her veil and things and see that theyre all right.
COLLINS. Yes, maam. Anything you would like mentioned about Miss Lesbia, maam?
MRS BRIDGENORTH. No. She wont have the General. I think you may take that as final.
COLLINS. What a pity, maam! A fine lady wasted, maam. [They shake their heads sadly; and Mrs Bridgenorth goes out through the tower].
THE BISHOP. I'm going to the hall, Collins, to receive. Rejjy: go and tell Boxer; and come both of you to help with the small talk. Come, Cecil. [He goes out through the tower, followed by Sykes].
REGINALD [to Hotchkiss] Youve always talked a precious lot about behaving like a gentleman. Well, if you think youve behaved like a gentleman to Leo, youre mistaken. And I shall have to take her part, remember that.
HOTCHKISS. I understand. Your doors are closed to me.
REGINALD [quickly] Oh no. Dont be hasty. I think I should like you to drop in after a while, you know. She gets so cross and upset when theres nobody to liven up the house a bit.
HOTCHKISS. I'll do my best.
REGINALD [relieved] Righto. You wont mind, old chap, do you?
HOTCHKISS. It's Fate. Ive touched coal; and my hands are black; but theyre clean. So long, Rejjy. [They shake hands; and Reginald goes into the garden to collect Boxer].
COLLINS. Excuse me, sir; but do you stay to breakfast? Your name is on one of the covers; and I should like to change it if youre not remaining.
HOTCHKISS. How do I know? Is my destiny any longer in my own hands? Go: ask SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED.
COLLINS [awestruck] Has Mrs George taken a fancy to you, sir?
HOTCHKISS. Would she had! Worse, man, worse: Ive taken a fancy to Mrs George.
COLLINS. Dont despair, sir: if George likes your conversation youll find their house a very pleasant one—livelier than Mr Reginald's was, I daresay.
HOTCHKISS [calling] Polly.
COLLINS [promptly] Oh, if it's come to Polly already, sir, I should say you were all right.
Mrs George appears at the door of the study.
HOTCHKISS. Your brother-in-law wishes to know whether I'm to stay for the wedding breakfast. Tell him.
MRS GEORGE. He stays, Bill, if he chooses to behave himself.
HOTCHKISS [to Collins] May I, as a friend of the family, have the privilege of calling you Bill?
COLLINS. With pleasure, sir, I'm sure, sir.
HOTCHKISS. My own pet name in the bosom of my family is Sonny.
MRS GEORGE. Why didnt you tell me that before? Sonny is just the name I wanted for you. [She pats his cheek familiarly; he rises abruptly and goes to the hearth, where he throws himself moodily into the railed chair] Bill: I'm not going into the hall until there are enough people there to make a proper little court for me. Send the Beadle for me when you think it looks good enough.
COLLINS. Right, maam. [He goes out through the tower].
Mrs George left alone with Hotchkiss and Soames, suddenly puts her hands on Soames's shoulders and bends over him.
MRS GEORGE. The Bishop said I was to tempt you, Anthony.
SOAMES [without looking round] Woman: go away.
MRS GEORGE. Anthony:
- "When other lips and other hearts
- Their tale of love shall tell
HOTCHKISS [sardonically]
- In language whose excess imparts
- The power they feel so well.
MRS GEORGE.
- Though hollow hearts may wear a mask,
- Twould break your own to see
- In such a moment I but ask
- That youll remember me."
And you will, Anthony. I shall put my spell on you.
SOAMES. Do you think that a man who has sung the Magnificat and adored the Queen of Heaven has any ears for such trash as that or any eyes for such trash as you—saving your poor little soul's presence. Go home to your duties, woman.
MRS GEORGE [highly approving his fortitude] Anthony: I adopt you as my father. Thats the talk! Give me a man whose whole life doesnt hang on some scrubby woman in the next street; and I'll never let him go [she slaps him heartily on the back].
SOAMES. Thats enough. You have another man to talk to. I'm busy.
MRS GEORGE [leaving Soames and going a step or two nearer Hotchkiss] Why arnt you like him, Sonny? Why do you hang on to a scrubby woman in the next street?
HOTCHKISS [thoughtfully] I must apologize to Billiter.
MRS GEORGE. Who is Billiter?
HOTCHKISS. A man who eats rice pudding with a spoon. Ive been eating rice pudding with a spoon ever since I saw you first.[He rises]. We all eat our rice pudding with a spoon, dont we, Soames?
SOAMES. We are members of one another. There is no need to refer to me. In the first place, I'm busy: in the second, youll find it all in the Church Catechism, which contains most of the new discoveries with which the age is bursting. Of course you should apologize to Billiter. He is your equal. He will go to the same heaven if he behaves himself and to the same hell if he doesnt.
MRS GEORGE [sitting down] And so will my husband the coal merchant.
HOTCHKISS. If I were your husband's superior here I should be his superior in heaven or hell: equality lies deeper than that. The coal merchant and I are in love with the same woman. That settles the question for me for ever. [He prowls across the kitchen to the garden door, deep in thought].
SOAMES. Psha!
MRS GEORGE. You dont believe in women, do you, Anthony? He might as well say that he and George both like fried fish.
HOTCHKISS. I do not like fried fish. Dont be low, Polly.
SOAMES. Woman: do not presume to accuse me of unbelief. And do you, Hotchkiss, not despise this woman's soul because she speaks of fried fish. Some of the victims of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes were fried. And I eat fried fish every Friday and like it. You are as ingrained a snob as ever.
HOTCHKISS [impatiently] My dear Anthony: I find you merely ridiculous as a preacher, because you keep referring me to places and documents and alleged occurrences in which, as a matter of fact, I dont believe. I dont believe in anything but my own will and my own pride and honor. Your fishes and your catechisms and all the rest of it make a charming poem which you call your faith. It fits you to perfection; but it doesnt fit me. I happen, like Napoleon, to prefer Mohammedanism. [Mrs George, associating Mohammedanism with polygamy, looks at him with quick suspicion]. I believe the whole British Empire will adopt a reformed Mohammedanism before the end of the century. The character of Mahomet is congenial to me. I admire him, and share his views of life to a considerable extent. That beats you, you see, Soames. Religion is a great force—the only real motive force in the world; but what you fellows dont understand is that you must get at a man through his own religion and not through yours. Instead of facing that fact, you persist in trying to convert all men to your own little sect, so that you can use it against them afterwards. You are all missionaries and proselytizers trying to uproot the native religion from your neighbor's flowerbeds and plant your own in its place. You would rather let a child perish in ignorance than have it taught by a rival sectary. You can talk to me of the quintessential equality of coal merchants and British officers; and yet you cant see the quintessential equality of all the religions. Who are you, anyhow, that you should know better than Mahomet or Confucius or any of the other Johnnies who have been on this job since the world existed?
MRS GEORGE [admiring his eloquence] George will like you, Sonny. You should hear him talking about the Church.
SOAMES. Very well, then: go to your doom, both of you. There is only one religion for me: that which my soul knows to be true; but even irreligion has one tenet; and that is the sacredness of marriage. You two are on the verge of deadly sin. Do you deny that?
HOTCHKISS. You forget, Anthony: the marriage itself is the deadly sin according to you.
SOAMES. The question is not now what I believe, but what you believe. Take the vows with me; and give up that woman if you have the strength and the light. But if you are still in the grip of this world, at least respect its institutions. Do you believe in marriage or do you not?
HOTCHKISS. My soul is utterly free from any such superstition. I solemnly declare that between this woman, as you impolitely call her, and me, I see no barrier that my conscience bids me respect. I loathe the whole marriage morality of the middle classes with all my instincts. If I were an eighteenth century marquis I could feel no more free with regard to a Parisian citizen's wife than I do with regard to Polly. I despise all this domestic purity business as the lowest depth of narrow, selfish, sensual, wife- grabbing vulgarity.
MRS GEORGE [rising promptly] Oh, indeed. Then youre not coming home with me, young man. I'm sorry; for its refreshing to have met once in my life a man who wasnt frightened by my wedding ring; but I'm looking out for a friend and not for a French marquis; so youre not coming home with me.
HOTCHKISS [inexorably] Yes, I am.
MRS GEORGE. No.
HOTCHKISS. Yes. Think again. You know your set pretty well, I suppose, your petty tradesmen's set. You know all its scandals and hypocrisies, its jealousies and squabbles, its hundred of divorce cases that never come into court, as well as its tens that do.
MRS GEORGE. We're not angels. I know a few scandals; but most of us are too dull to be anything but good.
HOTCHKISS. Then you must have noticed that just an all murderers, judging by their edifying remarks on the scaffold, seem to be devout Christians, so all Christians, both male and female, are invariably people over-flowing with domestic sentimentality and professions of respect for the conventions they violate in secret.
MRS GEORGE. Well, you dont expect them to give themselves away, do you?
HOTCHKISS. They are people of sentiment, not of honor. Now, I'm not a man of sentiment, but a man of honor. I know well what will happen to me when once I cross the threshold of your husband's house and break bread with him. This marriage bond which I despise will bind me as it never seems to bind the people who believe in it, and whose chief amusement it is to go to the theatres where it is laughed at. Soames: youre a Communist, arnt you?
SOAMES. I am a Christian. That obliges me to be a Communist.
HOTCHKISS. And you believe that many of our landed estates were stolen from the Church by Henry the eighth?
SOAMES. I do not merely believe that: I know it as a lawyer.
HOTCHKISS. Would you steal a turnip from one of the landlords of those stolen lands?
SOAMES [fencing with the question] They have no right to their lands.
HOTCHKISS. Thats not what I ask you. Would you steal a turnip from one of the fields they have no right to?
SOAMES. I do not like turnips.
HOTCHKISS. As you are a lawyer, answer me.
SOAMES. I admit that I should probably not do so. I should perhaps be wrong not to steal the turnip: I cant defend my reluctance to do so; but I think I should not do so. I know I should not do so.
HOTCHKISS. Neither shall I be able to steal George's wife. I have stretched out my hand for that forbidden fruit before; and I know that my hand will always come back empty. To disbelieve in marriage is easy: to love a married woman is easy; but to betray a comrade, to be disloyal to a host, to break the covenant of bread and salt, is impossible. You may take me home with you, Polly: you have nothing to fear.
MRS GEORGE. And nothing to hope?
HOTCHKISS. Since you put it in that more than kind way, Polly, absolutely nothing.
MRS GEORGE. Hm! Like most men, you think you know everything a woman wants, dont you? But the thing one wants most has nothing to do with marriage at all. Perhaps Anthony here has a glimmering of it. Eh, Anthony?
SOAMES. Christian fellowship?
MRS GEORGE. You call it that, do you?
SOAMES. What do you call it?
COLLINS [appearing in the tower with the Beadle]. Now, Polly, the hall's full; and theyre waiting for you.
THE BEADLE. Make way there, gentlemen, please. Way for the worshipful the Mayoress. If you please, my lords and gentlemen. By your leave, ladies and gentlemen: way for the Mayoress.
Mrs George takes Hotchkiss's arm, and goes out, preceded by the Beadle.
Soames resumes his writing tranquilly.