Complete Works of George Moore

by George Moore

  ARABELLA.

  We too came here in hopes. How can you expect a girl to marry you when you are doing everything you can to deprive her of her property?

  DEAN.

  That you, Aunt Arabella, who have always been kind, should turn against me at last! (He repulses her.) Mr. Hardman, you are a stranger, and will understand better than my relations. I feel keenly the difficulty of my position; it is most painful; it is almost unbearable.

  HARDMAN.

  My dear Jasper, I easily guess that you must suffer, for I know that you’re fond of Millicent; I may say even that I appreciate the pluck you are showing in very trying circumstances.

  DEAN.

  Thank you for that. That is the first word of sympathy (looking at his aunts) I have had.

  HARDMAN.

  The worst of it is that you are sacrificing your life for no object.

  DEAN.

  No object! Ah, if you knew! But you look at life from a different side.

  HARDMAN.

  You enter your house like a rioter, and having thrown your furniture out of the window you stand there surprised to find that you have not changed the face of the world. We change nothing. The enthusiasms which have lit your imagination will pass away; soon you will be sitting over the embers. I have invited your Corporation to meet me. I intend to try to arrive at some sort of compromise; if you oppose me you will go to the wall; for I’m appealing to the grosser instincts which are always with us, which are the world we live in.

  (Enter WAITER.)

  WAITER.

  The members of the Corporation are below, sir.

  HARDMAN.

  Very well; show them up. (Exit WAITER.) Well, Jasper? You’re undecided.

  DEAN.

  No, I’m not undecided. There’s always a right and a wrong way, and the wrong way always seems the more reasonable.

  (Enter ALDERMAN DANIEL LAWRENCE, ALDERMAN JAMES POLLOCK, ALDERMAN MICHAEL LEECH, MAYOR JOSEPH TENCH, ALDERMAN RALPH KIRWAN, FERGUSON, VALENTINE FOLEY, and various Town Councillors, the Town Clerk, JOHN CLORAN. The WAITER brings in tray with glasses, &c.)

  LAWRENCE.

  My dear Mr. Hardman, I suppose it is superfluous for me to introduce our respected Mayor and Corporation?

  HARDMAN.

  Indeed, we are no strangers, gentlemen, you are welcome. How is Alderman Ferguson, my courteous friend? — ah, a noted authority on municipal procedure too. And here is the new journalism — Alderman Foley, how do you do, sir? Ah, Alderman Kirwan, the beginning of modern Celtic literature. (He shakes hands with other members.) How do you do, Alderman Leech? Gentlemen, won’t you have some refreshments? (They help themselves largely to liquor.)

  (FOLEY comes down stage to speak to MISS CAROLINE DEAN.)

  CAROLINE.

  I am sorry, Mr. Foley, that you have taken a pronounced part in this agitation.

  FOLEY.

  My dear Miss Dean, I do not pretend that it is an eternal truth. But there is some truth in everything, though the truth of to-day is not always that of yesterday.

  CAROLINE.

  Truth is not a thing of to-day or to-morrow.

  FOLEY.

  There are the eternal verities, to be sure; but they are not the business of the newspapers. Our ideas are borne in upon us like the leaves on the wind; we express them; we have to think of the need of the moment. Popular feeling is to-day for this movement, to-morrow it may be against it.

  ARABELLA.

  But we should not change our practice of life.

  FOLEY.

  Our practice of life is, alas! often mean enough, but the intolerable is not to have large and noble views of what life should be and to expound those views in language as — as —

  ARABELLA.

  As eloquent as space will allow.

  CAROLINE.

  At all events I hope you will give a fair hearing to the proposals Mr. Hardman intends to make, and you will come to see me soon I hope.

  FOLEY.

  I shall have much pleasure. (They shake hands.)

  CAROLINE.

  (Going up the stage and meeting MR. HARDMAN.) Goodbye, Mr. Hardman; I came here in the hopes of inducing my nephew to abandon an agitation which every one must see is entirely unsafe. I regret, Mr. Hardman, that my influence has proved of no avail. Arabella, are you coming?

  [Exeunt Miss CAROLINE and Miss ARABELLA DEAN.

  HARDMAN.

  (Coming down the stage.) If you have made up your minds to decline every proposal whatever it may be, I will not weary you with any one. Let us talk of other things. I hear that the year promises to be an excellent one.

  KIRWAN.

  You press alms upon us, whereas we desire only that you should pay your debts.

  FOLEY.

  I am here as a representative of the Press, gentlemen, and it would be impossible for me to decline to hear Mr. Hardman’s proposal. I hope that Mr. Alderman Ferguson will see the unreason of saying he does not agree to proposals which he has not yet heard.

  FERGUSON.

  Alderman Foley is very quick to jump down my throat. I only meant that nothing short of our strict rights would satisfy me.

  HARDMAN.

  I suppose you mean that very little short of your strict rights will satisfy you, for compromise enters into all human affairs.

  FERGUSON.

  Nothing but our strict rights.

  HARDMAN.

  Even the law courts cannot give you what you believe to be your strict rights. The costs will be enormous, even if you win; and the law is proverbially uncertain.

  FERGUSON.

  Upon a point of law, sir, I can assure you that you have no case; and upon a point of law these gentlemen will be guided by me.

  HARDMAN.

  I wished to discuss this matter quietly among ourselves. I assure you that there are arguments.

  FERGUSON.

  Everything that can be said has been said; is not that so, Dean?

  DEAN.

  I think so. But if Mr. Hardman has any offer to make, I shall be glad to hear it.

  HARDMAN.

  I should like to hear Alderman Foley’s opinion upon a little matter which Alderman Lawrence and myself were discussing this morning. The town is in eminent need of a new tramway leading to the quarter of the poorest people, it would be a great benefit to them. Now, it seems to me that —

  KIRWAN.

  What you say, Mr. Hardman, is quite true; the tramway is wanted, and it would likewise prove an excellent investment for Southhaven capital.

  HARDMAN.

  If it is in that spirit my proposals are met, it would be useless for me to proceed further. (Looking in the direction of FOLEY.) Alderman Foley, without desiring you to commit yourself to an opinion, I hope I can rely on you for a fair statement of my proposal. The people should know my offer.

  FOLEY.

  I should be wanting in my duty to the public if I were to allow my private feelings to prevent me from publishing every matter of news.

  KIRWAN.

  But, Alderman Foley, I thought we had all agreed on the one line of action.

  FOLEY.

  I shall place the matter impartially before my readers. The interests of the Press must be safeguarded.

  HARDMAN.

  I am glad to see that Alderman Foley is not of your opinion on the question of compromise, and you may be sure that not a few of your townspeople will blame you for neglecting the solid interests of your town.

  KIRWAN.

  Alderman Foley has shown no sign of wavering that I know of, and it would only matter to him if he did. Our townspeople are solid behind us, as will be seen at the great mass meeting at the Town Hall to-morrow.

  HARDMAN.

  Then what further boon? I offer to supply the capital of the tramway, and Mr. Lawrence proposed this morning that I should take a house and grounds and spend part of the year with you. But I should like to hear Mr. Jasper Dean’s opinion. Does he believe that compromise is impossible?
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br />   DEAN.

  I’ve really nothing further to add. I think Mr. Aiderman Ferguson touched the root of the question when he said that he did not believe it would be possible to compromise this matter. Your offer of the tramway convinces me he is right. As Mayor Tench has said, we stand by the finding of the accountants.

  LAWRENCE.

  But the accountants were not all agreed that certain harbour dues should be charged.

  DEAN.

  That is a point of law on which we have had the best advice, (Turning excitedly to HARDMAN.) We are resolved to fight this to the end.

  LAWRENCE.

  I am sure, gentlemen, that with patience this discussion will lead to an amicable settlement.

  TENCH.

  Did you ever see the Corporation so united before? As for the tramway, we shall have plenty of money to build that for ourselves, when we have been paid what is owed to us. Won’t we, Alderman Dean?

  DEAN.

  (Absently.) What? Yes, of course.

  LAWRENCE.

  Take my advice, and come to terms when you can. A change of affairs might happen that would upset all your calculations. Then you might find yourselves in a worse state than ever.

  FERGUSON.

  I must be going too. Goodbye, Mr. Hardman. Your cigars are excellent!

  HARDMAN.

  Your demands are outside the pale of practical politics.

  KIRWAN.

  That is your answer to all our demands.

  LAWRENCE.

  Oh, my dear Mr. Hardman! Oh, my dear colleagues of the Corporation, where are you going? Where are you going?

  TENCH.

  I am afraid, Mr. Hardman, we cannot stay any longer.

  HARDMAN.

  (As the Corporation are bowing and departing.) Well, gentlemen, I hope we part good friends, in spite of all differences in opinion. I will see you downstairs.

  (Exeunt all except DEAN and KIRWAN.)

  KIRWAN.

  The choice was difficult, but you proved equal to the task of choosing.

  DEAN.

  Shall I regret?

  KIRWAN.

  No, you will not regret, but while the blood is young it will cry out Miss Fell is the temptation that Southhaven sent you, and she sends to each some insidious temptation. Southhaven is always beside us to tempt us in our moments of weakness. No sooner do we become united behind any man than she comes to him with her hands full of bribes.

  (Enter MILLICENT.)

  MILLICENT.

  I heard that you were here. But you are engaged — it doesn’t matter.

  DEAN.

  But Miss Fell. (To KIRWAN) Miss Fell wishes to speak to me. I’ll see you presently. I’ll call for you on my way home. — [Exit KIRWAN.

  MILLICENT.

  I did not like to go away without seeing you. My uncle told you that I could not see you.

  DEAN.

  Yes; I understood that you did not wish to see me.

  MILLICENT.

  But I changed my mind. I felt that I must see you.

  DEAN.

  And, Millicent, I felt that I must see you.

  MILLICENT.

  Tell me about the meeting. I can see there was no compromise. You would yield nothing.

  (They sit on two chairs halfway up the stage facing the audience.)

  DEAN.

  As Kirwan says, there are but two ways, the right and the wrong, and no compromise is possible.

  MILLICENT.

  So we are parted.

  DEAN.

  There is no reason why we should be if —

  MILLICENT.

  Let us not go over it all again; all that can be said has been said.

  DEAN.

  Alas. And our happiness is a mere matter of money — money which neither of us cares much about; and yet this money puts me in a wretched plight.

  MILLICENT.

  That I may lose a few hundred pounds or all I have got matters nothing compared to —

  DEAN.

  To what?

  MILLICENT.

  To the fact that you do not love me enough. This money we could do without, but I cannot marry a man who has resolved that his life shall be Kirwan’s apparitor and satellite. My friends, my pursuits, my family, I can give up, but I cannot give up myself; and am I not an inheritance of ideas which you hate, which you used not to hate, but which you have learnt to hate? Everything divides us, and yet we’re very dear to each other.

  DEAN.

  That is the misery of it.

  MILLICENT.

  Ah, if you had never met Kirwan!

  DEAN.

  I should be quite different, no doubt, and many things which lie heavy on my heart would pass by lightly enough.

  MILLICENT.

  My uncle, who is a clever man, compared you to a rioter who breaks into his own house and, having wrecked it, looks out of the window surprised to find the world exactly the same as before.

  DEAN.

  He said the same to me, and from his point of view the image is a striking one.

  MILLICENT.

  He said you were following a chimera.

  DEAN.

  Do we not all follow chimeras, he as much as I? Is it so sure that the material world which he follows is less chimerical than the spiritual truths which I strive to follow?

  MI LUCENT.

  I do not trouble about such things, I only know that —

  DEAN.

  At all events we have no proof that spiritual truths are illusory, whereas we know that the world is.

  MILLICENT.

  Yes; it slides like sand under our feet, even I have perceived that.

  DEAN.

  The difficulty in life is the choice, and all the wonder of life is in the choice.

  MILLICENT.

  Between what?

  DEAN.

  The world within us and the world without us. You are the world that is outside of me, I am the world that is outside of you. (Pause.) Do you understand?

  MILLICENT.

  Yes; I think I do. (Pause.)

  DEAN.

  Now tell me of what you’re thinking, Millicent.

  MILLICENT.

  I was thinking how we think of all these things, and how we act just as if we hadn’t thought of them at all. So this is the end. It was to part like this that I met you at Oxford.

  DEAN.

  Ah, the day I met you as you sauntered across the sunny old quadrangle, that Sunday morning!

  MILLICENT.

  And the day we went on the river! We rowed by the ruins of Godstone nunnery where fair Rosamund ended her days. We talked of her strange beauty and looked across the yellow meadows.

  DEAN.

  That happy day! My soul was in all the air. I felt that something had befallen me — something momentous, something that would never happen again. Millicent, we cannot part. You said the other day that we were united. I feel that we are.

  You say so now (they get up), but to-morrow you would regret it — not to-morrow, perhaps, but sooner or later. Kirwan has shown you the way, and your feet have begun to travel the way which it would be a lifelong regret to turn back from. You would feel at the end of the journey that you had not walked in life, but alongside of life.

  DEAN.

  I shall be unhappy whichever is my choice.

  MILLICENT.

  I don’t wish to ruin any one’s life, nor do I wish any one to ruin mine.

  DEAN.

  To ruin your life!

  MILLICENT.

  Yes; I too have a life to ruin, though I am only a woman. Can I not see you five years hence looking across the table at me, even at your children, and regretting that you had sacrificed your country for them? Go to your country, it shall not be said that I have robbed it.

  DEAN.

  I am not equal to the sacrifice. I cannot forego the joy of you, Millicent.

  MILLICENT.

  You think so now. To-morrow your heart will rejoice secretly in your escape. (
She is about to go.) Here is my uncle. Goodbye. (She goes out by one door as HARDMAN and LAWRENCE enter by another.)

  HARDMAN.

  Well, Jasper, I hope that Millicent has convinced you that as you have only one life to live you had better live it.

  DEAN.

  That we should live our lives there can be no question, but in which direction we may live them the most fully is a question which neither she nor I have been able to settle. — [Exit.

  (They sit down on the same two chairs.)

  LAWRENCE.

  What has happened? (HARDMAN shrugs his shoulders.) One has given way, but which? We’re in their hands; they hold us in the hollow of their hands.

  HARDMAN.

  Perhaps neither has given way.

  LAWRENCE.

  One must have given way. The yielding one is the hinge on which the world swings. My idea that you should meet the Corporation wasn’t a bad one, was it?

  (HARDMAN doesn’t answer.) Do you think that Jasper will give way? It is generally the woman that yields. And if she yields my appointment is lost. (They get up.)

  HARDMAN.

  The appointment may yet be yours. Goodbye for the present, my dear Alderman.

  (LAWRENCE goes out and HARDMAN stands looking after him.)

  ACT THE FIFTH.

  THE SAME AS in the Second and Third Acts. Miss CAROLINE DEAN and Miss ARABELLA DEAN discovered talking, KIRWAN standing at the back of the stage.

  ARABELLA.

  From the beginning I thought that you were inclined to overdo it; not only were the hours of study, but the very hours of recreation were arranged by you.

  CAROLINE.

  Wild nature is abominable; beauty and morals are cultivation. You train a tree, you train a horse, why should you not train a child?

  ARABELLA.

  He was bound to break through your severity. I don’t think he was right, Caroline, but a man of genius gets loose, somehow —

  CAROLINE.

  Jasper is not a man of genius.

  ARABELLA.

  Jasper is very young. We do not know what he will become —

  CAROLINE.

  There will be no becoming; he will remain what he is for a while, and then deteriorate.

  ARABELLA.

  I daresay you think, Caroline, if it had not been for me you would have succeeded.

  CAROLINE.

  You never helped me, you always gave way to him; I have myself heard you urge him to follow his own inclination.

  ARABELLA.

  We are divided on the question whether we can mould a soul, or if, without our aid and despite our hindrance, a soul takes the shortest cut to its own destiny.