HOTCHKISS [following] Dont be an a.s.s, Polly.
MRS GEORGE [stopping] Thats better.
HOTCHKISS. Cant you see that I maynt throw Leo over just because I should be only too glad to. It would be dishonorable.
MRS GEORGE. Will you be happy if you marry her?
HOTCHKISS. No, great heaven, NO!
MRS GEORGE. Will she be happy when she finds you out?
HOTCHKISS. She"s incapable of happiness. But she"s not incapable of the pleasure of holding a man against his will.
MRS GEORGE. Right, young man. You will tell her, please, that you love me: before everybody, mind, the very next time you see her.
HOTCHKISS. But--
MRS GEORGE. Those are my orders, Sinjon. I cant have you marry another woman until George is tired of you.
HOTCHKISS. Oh, if I only didnt selfishly want to obey you!
The General comes in from the garden. Mrs George goes half way to the garden door to speak to him. Hotchkiss posts himself on the hearth.
MRS GEORGE. Where have you been all this time?
THE GENERAL. I"m afraid my nerves were a little upset by our conversation. I just went into the garden and had a smoke. I"m all right now [he strolls down to the study door and presently takes a chair at that end of the big table].
MRS GEORGE. A smoke! Why, you said she couldnt bear it.
THE GENERAL. Good heavens! I forgot! It"s such a natural thing to do, somehow.
Lesbia comes in through the tower.
MRS GEORGE. He"s been smoking again.
LESBIA. So my nose tells me. [She goes to the end of the table nearest the hearth, and sits down].
THE GENERAL. Lesbia: I"m very sorry. But if I gave it up, I should become so melancholy and irritable that you would be the first to implore me to take to it again.
MRS GEORGE. Thats true. Women drive their husbands into all sorts of wickedness to keep them in good humor. Sinjon: be off with you: this doesnt concern you.
LESBIA. Please dont disturb yourself, Sinjon. Boxer"s broken heart has been worn on his sleeve too long for any pretence of privacy.
THE GENERAL. You are cruel, Lesbia: devilishly cruel. [He sits down, wounded].
LESBIA. You are vulgar, Boxer.
HOTCHKISS. In what way? I ask, as an expert in vulgarity.
LESBIA. In two ways. First, he talks as if the only thing of any importance in life was which particular woman he shall marry.
Second, he has no self-control.
THE GENERAL. Women are not all the same to me, Lesbia.
MRS GEORGE. Why should they be, pray? Women are all different: it"s the men who are all the same. Besides, what does Miss Grantham know about either men or women? She"s got too much self- control.
LESBIA [widening her eyes and lifting her chin haughtily] And pray how does that prevent me from knowing as much about men and women as people who have no self-control?
MRS GEORGE. Because it frightens people into behaving themselves before you; and then how can you tell what they really are? Look at me! I was a spoilt child. My brothers and sisters were well brought up, like all children of respectable publicans. So should I have been if I hadnt been the youngest: ten years younger than my youngest brother. My parents were tired of doing their duty by their children by that time; and they spoilt me for all they were worth. I never knew what it was to want money or anything that money could buy. When I wanted my own way, I had nothing to do but scream for it till I got it. When I was annoyed I didnt control myself: I scratched and called names. Did you ever, after you were grown up, pull a grown-up woman"s hair? Did you ever bite a grown-up man? Did you ever call both of them every name you could lay your tongue to?
LESBIA [shivering with disgust] No.
MRS GEORGE. Well, I did. I know what a woman is like when her hair"s pulled. I know what a man is like when he"s bit. I know what theyre both like when you tell them what you really feel about them. And thats how I know more of the world than you.
LESBIA. The Chinese know what a man is like when he is cut into a thousand pieces, or boiled in oil. That sort of knowledge is of no use to me. I"m afraid we shall never get on with one another, Mrs George. I live like a fencer, always on guard. I like to be confronted with people who are always on guard. I hate sloppy people, slovenly people, people who cant sit up straight, sentimental people.
MRS GEORGE. Oh, sentimental your grandmother! You dont learn to hold your own in the world by standing on guard, but by attacking, and getting well hammered yourself.
LESBIA. I"m not a prize-fighter, Mrs. Collins. If I cant get a thing without the indignity of fighting for it, I do without it.
MRS GEORGE. Do you? Does it strike you that if we were all as clever as you at doing without, there wouldnt be much to live for, would there?
TAE GENERAL. I"m afraid, Lesbia, the things you do without are the things you dont want.
LESBIA [surprised at his wit] Thats not bad for the silly soldier man. Yes, Boxer: the truth is, I dont want you enough to make the very unreasonable sacrifices required by marriage. And yet that is exactly why I ought to be married. Just because I have the qualities my country wants most I shall go barren to my grave; whilst the women who have neither the strength to resist marriage nor the intelligence to understand its infinite dishonor will make the England of the future. [She rises and walks towards the study].
THE GENERAL [as she is about to pa.s.s him] Well, I shall not ask you again, Lesbia.
LESBIA. Thank you, Boxer. [She pa.s.ses on to the study door].
MRS GEORGE. Youre quite done with him, are you?
LESBIA. As far as marriage is concerned, yes. The field is clear for you, Mrs George. [She goes into the study].
The General buries his face in his hands. Mrs George comes round the table to him.
MRS GEORGE [sympathetically] She"s a nice woman, that. And a sort of beauty about her too, different from anyone else.
THE GENERAL [overwhelmed] Oh Mrs Collins, thank you, thank you a thousand times. [He rises effusively]. You have thawed the long- frozen springs [he kisses her hand]. Forgive me; and thank you: bless you--[he again takes refuge in the garden, choked with emotion].
MRS GEORGE [looking after him triumphantly] Just caught the dear old warrior on the bounce, eh?
HOTCHKISS. Unfaithful to me already!
MRS GEORGE. I"m not your property, young man dont you think it.
[She goes over to him and faces him]. You understand that? [He suddenly s.n.a.t.c.hes her into his arms and kisses her]. Oh! You.
dare do that again, you young blackguard; and I"ll jab one of these chairs in your face [she seizes one and holds it in readiness]. Now you shall not see me for another month.