Man and Superman, George Bernard Shaw [hardest books to read txt] 📗

historic house, castle or abbey that England contains. The day that he tells me he wants it for a wife worthy of its traditions, I buy it for him, and give him the means of keeping it up. Violet What do you mean by a wife worthy of its traditions? Cannot any well bred woman keep such a house for him? Malone No: she must be born to it. Violet Hector was not born to it, was he? Malone His granmother was a barefooted Irish girl that nursed me by a turf fire. Let him marry another such, and I will not stint her marriage portion. Let him raise himself socially with my money or raise somebody else so long as there is a social profit somewhere, I’ll regard my expenditure as justified. But there must be a profit for someone. A marriage with you would leave things just where they are. Violet Many of my relations would object very much to my marrying the grandson of a common woman, Mr. Malone. That may be prejudice; but so is your desire to have him marry a title prejudice. Malone Rising, and approaching her with a scrutiny in which there is a good deal of reluctant respect. You seem a pretty straightforward downright sort of a young woman. Violet I do not see why I should be made miserably poor because I cannot make profits for you. Why do you want to make Hector unhappy? Malone He will get over it all right enough. Men thrive better on disappointments in love than on disappointments in money. I daresay you think that sordid; but I know what I’m talking about. My father died of starvation in Ireland in the black 47, Maybe you’ve heard of it. Violet The Famine? Malone With smouldering passion. No, the starvation. When a country is full of food, and exporting it, there can be no famine. My father was starved dead; and I was starved out to America in my mother’s arms. English rule drove me and mine out of Ireland. Well, you can keep Ireland. I and my like are coming back to buy England; and we’ll buy the best of it. I want no middle class properties and no middle class women for Hector. That’s straightforward isn’t it, like yourself? Violet Icily pitying his sentimentality. Really, Mr. Malone, I am astonished to hear a man of your age and good sense talking in that romantic way. Do you suppose English noblemen will sell their places to you for the asking? Malone I have the refusal of two of the oldest family mansions in England. One historic owner can’t afford to keep all the rooms dusted: the other can’t afford the death duties. What do you say now? Violet Of course it is very scandalous; but surely you know that the Government will sooner or later put a stop to all these Socialistic attacks on property. Malone Grinning. D’y’ think they’ll be able to get that done before I buy the house⁠—or rather the abbey? They’re both abbeys. Violet Putting that aside rather impatiently. Oh, well, let us talk sense, Mr. Malone. You must feel that we haven’t been talking sense so far. Malone I can’t say I do. I mean all I say. Violet Then you don’t know Hector as I do. He is romantic and faddy⁠—he gets it from you, I fancy⁠—and he wants a certain sort of wife to take care of him. Not a faddy sort of person, you know. Malone Somebody like you, perhaps? Violet Quietly. Well, yes. But you cannot very well ask me to undertake this with absolutely no means of keeping up his position. Malone Alarmed. Stop a bit, stop a bit. Where are we getting to? I’m not aware that I’m asking you to undertake anything. Violet Of course, Mr. Malone, you can make it very difficult for me to speak to you if you choose to misunderstand me. Malone Half bewildered. I don’t wish to take any unfair advantage; but we seem to have got off the straight track somehow. Straker, with the air of a man who has been making haste, opens the little gate, and admits Hector, who, snorting with indignation, comes upon the lawn, and is making for his father when Violet, greatly dismayed, springs up and intercepts him. Straker doer not wait; at least he does not remain visibly within earshot. Violet Oh, how unlucky! Now please, Hector, say nothing. Go away until I have finished speaking to your father. Hector Inexorably. No, Violet: I mean to have this thing out, right away. He puts her aside; passes her by; and faces his father, whose cheeks darken as his Irish blood begins to simmer. Dad: you’ve not played this hand straight. Malone Hwat d’y’mean? Hector You’ve opened a letter addressed to me. You’ve impersonated me and stolen a march on this lady. That’s dishonorable. Malone Threateningly. Now you take care what you’re saying, Hector. Take care, I tell you. Hector I have taken care. I am taking care. I’m taking care of my honor and my position in English society. Malone Hotly. Your position has been got by my money: do you know that? Hector Well, you’ve just spoiled it all by opening that letter. A letter from an English lady, not addressed to you⁠—a confidential letter! A delicate letter! A private letter opened by my father! That’s a sort of thing a man can’t struggle against in England. The sooner we go back together the better. He appeals mutely to the heavens to witness the shame and anguish of two outcasts. Violet Snubbing him with an instinctive dislike for scene making. Don’t be unreasonable, Hector. It was quite natural of Mr. Malone to open my letter: his name was on the envelope. Malone There! You’ve no common sense, Hector. I thank you, Miss Robinson. Hector I thank you, too. It’s very kind of you. My father knows no better. Malone Furiously clenching his fists. Hector⁠— Hector With undaunted moral force. Oh, it’s no use hectoring me. A private letter’s a private