by George Moore
CAROLINE.
It must be right to teach what we believe to be right; and the proof of this is that we all teach. Our teaching may be a benevolent neutrality like yours, a general go-as-you-please, or a disciplined teaching like mine; but in either case we teach.
ARABELLA.
Yes, teaching seems as essential to teacher as to pupil. I daresay you are right, Caroline.
CAROLINE.
I at least think that I am right, and you have no clear convictions —
ARABELLA.
I have no clear convictions on this point, perhaps; on no point are my convictions as clear as yours.
(KIRWAN comes down on the stage.)
KIRWAN.
I beg your pardon for interrupting you, but time is flying. I’m afraid he’ll be late.
CAROLINE.
You are very forgetful, Alderman Kirwan; can you not remember that my desire is that he shall not go to this meeting?
ARABELLA.
Do wait a little. Do wait, he will be disappointed if he misses you.
KIRWAN.
The meeting has begun, and it is a matter of vital importance that he should be there.
ARABELLA.
(Rising.) Where can he be? His study door is locked; he must have gone to the meeting, for he is nowhere about the house.
KIRWAN.
It is very strange.
ARABELLA.
Wait a little longer, unless you think you know where you can find him.
KIRWAN.
(To CAROLINE.) Let us differ amicably, Miss Dean, since we must differ. I believe all your fears to be groundless, and that the result will prove them to be so even to you. But the man who loses his opportunity, loses himself. (He goes up the stage.)
CAROLINE.
Arabella, why did you ask him to stay? You have no consideration for my feelings. (She gets up, ARABELLA detains her.)
ARABELLA.
He’s Jasper’s greatest friend.
CAROLINE.
Jasper looks to him as to a god, and drinks down every word he utters as eagerly as if he were listening to a divine utterance.
ARABELLA.
Kirwan is the first man of ideas that Jasper met.
CAROLINE.
Really, Arabella, I understand you no longer. At the University —
ARABELLA.
I don’t think that Jasper was ever interested in learning, it was something else that interested him in Kirwan.
CAROLINE.
Something else! What else? hatred of respectable people and a preference for abominable folklore to Greek culture. All our labours in vain, my early teaching and the teaching of the most learned professors in Southhaven wasted!
KIRWAN.
(Comes down the stage.) I cannot wait any longer; the meeting has begun.
ARABELLA.
What shall we tell Jasper?
KIRWAN.
I don’t think there is anything to tell him. It is clear that he does not intend to go to the meeting. He has put his faith in the joys of the flesh and the world.
ARABELLA.
Will he be the unhappier for that?
CAROLINE.
He thinks too much of happiness; he should rather try to consider what is right for him to do.
KIRWAN.
For once we find ourselves in agreement, Miss Dean (turning to ARABELLA). Tell him nothing. Yes, tell him that I will not reproach him.
ARABELLA.
Thank you, Alderman Kirwan, thank you.
CAROLINE.
And what are you going to do, Alderman Kirwan — nothing?
KIRWAN.
I am going to the meeting to see the disaster. I am a collector of broken causes.
CAROLINE.
You are going there to lead, this is your opportunity.
ARABELLA.
No one can take Jasper’s place. You will be beaten, Alderman Kirwan.
CAROLINE.
Really, Arabella, you begin to strain my patience.
KIRWAN.
She understands better than you do, Miss Dean. I cannot lead. My opinions are too well known, and when I write them or speak them people merely say, “There is Alderman Kirwan again, how many years has he been saying that now?” and they yawn and talk about something else.
CAROLINE.
But Jasper merely expressed your ideas KIRWAN.
I know that, but that was just what was wanted, a new man to speak old thoughts, that is what the world always wants.
CAROLINE.
I don’t understand.
KIRWAN.
I daresay you don’t; but I say that in losing Jasper we have lost everything. The very strength of personality that makes union so hard among us might have made us a great people if he but dared to lead us. He preferred — well, goodbye, Miss Dean, goodbye. (Aside as he goes out ) He might have been remembered in times to come, we should have told our children about him. — [Exit.
CAROLINE.
We’re saved, we’re saved.
ARABELLA.
But if he succeeds in leading after all and Hardman is defeated?
CAROLINE.
Oh! what do I care as long as it is not Jasper who defeats him, and we are safe with our Southhaven friends and with respectable people here? Jasper will now be able to take the lead in respectable causes.
ARABELLA.
Respectable causes! is a cause ever respectable?
CAROLINE.
What do you mean, Arabella? You are as enigmatical as our unfortunate nephew.
ARABELLA.
It would seem to me that a cause is lost when it becomes respectable.
CAROLINE.
Did you hear Kirwan say that, Arabella? It sounds like one of his acute observations.
ARABELLA.
No, I did not hear Kirwan say that, but I daresay it is one of the things he would say.
CAROLINE.
You never hear me expressing anyone else’s views.
ARABELLA.
No, I will say that for you. You bring people round to your views. It seems that you completed Alderman Foley’s conversion yesterday.
CAROLINE.
He saw, of course, that I could not consent unless he joined the respectable party.
ARABELLA.
Yes, Caroline; but I wonder if Jasper will look favourably on the alliance.
CAROLINE.
Alderman Foley’s grandfather, I have reason for knowing, was in a much better position than Valentine’s father, and as for Jasper, it would ill-become him to criticise me after having done all he could to disgrace his family. Had it not been for my influence Alderman Foley might have remained on the popular side.
ARABELLA.
It would not matter, everything depends on Jasper. Do you intend to tell him?
CAROLINE.
Of course he’ll know some day.
(Enter JASPER.)
ARABELLA.
Ob, Jasper, Alderman Kirwan has been here looking for you.
DEAN.
That was he whom I heard talking.
ARABELLA.
I tried your door; it was locked.
DEAN.
Yes, I locked the door; where is he?
ARABELLA.
He is gone to the meeting.
CAROLINE.
I persuaded him to go there and lead in your absence.
ARABELLA.
Aren’t you going, Jasper? (He walks to the window and looks out, and returns like a man uncertain of his next action, worried and nervous.)
DEAN.
What did Kirwan say?
ARABELLA.
He seemed distressed that he did not find you; he believed so entirely in you, Jasper. I asked him if there was any message he could give you, and he said there was none.
DEAN.
Did he say anything else?
ARABELLA.
I don’t remember anything else. Ah! he said that you were not to be afraid, that he would not reproach you. He was ve
ry kind.
DEAN.
He’s always that. He knows that I shall reproach myself. Did he say anything else?
CAROLINE.
I cannot understand the attention that is paid to his slightest word; every word is treasured up like a pearl examined, looked at from this side and that, and then put away to be quoted on some future occasion.
DEAN.
Kirwan is the noblest of men, and every word that falls from his lips should be treasured up. His words are pearls indeed, but unhappily they sometimes fall where pearls proverbially fall.
CAROLINE.
Jasper!
DEAN.
I’m not thinking of you, Aunt Caroline, I’m thinking of us all. (Sitting down.) Oh! Kirwan, that you should have begotten so unworthy a disciple! (Getting up.) That I should be able to see so clear, and should be so unable to act. I’m like a hound in a leash. I strain at the thong but it does not break, and I am choking.
ARABELLA.
You will make yourself ill, dear; shall I fetch you a glass of water?
DEAN.
No, no. I was speaking in metaphors. It’s ridiculous to give way like this, but when one speaks of Kirwan I’m overcome, that is all.
ARABELLA.
Let us not speak of him, then.
DEAN.
On the contrary, let us speak of him! If we cannot act like him, we can at least admire. All his life he has sacrificed the world to his ideas, and to do that is holiness. To see the right way and to follow it always without wavering is the sublime life.
CAROLINE.
I know that in your opinion, Jasper, I am a very inferior person, but you cannot accuse me of wavering in my ideas.
DEAN.
Alas! Aunt Caroline, you never had an idea in your life. You mistook worldly advantage for ideas.
CAROLINE.
Then if you’re so sure of what is right, why don’t you go to the meeting? However wrong my ideas may be, I have not abandoned them; in that at least I have the inestimable advantage of resembling Alderman Kirwan.
DEAN.
Yes, you are steadfast, whereas I am a weak creature that errs. But I do not blaspheme, I do not deny the truth as you do. But, Aunt Caroline, let us not reproach each other; let us rather pity each other. You see a little clearer on one side than I do; perhaps I see clearer on another side when I look towards Kirwan, my master, whom I am too weak to follow.
ARABELLA.
But, Jasper, you seem terribly distressed. Do you think it would make you happy to go to this meeting?
DEAN.
Yes, in the long run, years hence, but the entanglements of the moment hold me.
ARABELLA.
Dear Jasper, tell me about it; it has to do with Millicent has it not?
DEAN.
Yes, it has to do with her. I promised her not to go to this meeting, that is all! It doesn’t sound sufficient for this fuss, but life is, as you know, a trivial affair, and we are trivial beings.... I’m going with her and Hardman to Southhaven. We shall be married and —
ARABELLA.
You will be happy.
DEAN.
Happy! Ah! I have chosen the delight of the passing hour; I’ve not known how to do the one needful thing.
ARABELLA.
What is that?
DEAN.
To sacrifice the passing hour to the idea. I wonder how all this will seem to me ten years hence?
CAROLINE.
It’s at all events satisfactory that you are not going to disgrace your family for the sake of feelings which you may never live to experience.
DEAN.
I know well which is the honourable course; but this obsession, this intolerable obsession! Oh, if I could throw it off! (A sound of tumult is heard outside in the streets, and he goes to the window.) The streets are moving. Numbers must have failed to get into the hall. Kirwan told me there would not be room for every one. (Coming down the stage.) Kirwan has the will and not the power, I have the power and not the will. The shallow and the light-souled are always the chosen of the people, and the shallow and the light-souled betray the people, because they are as God made them. (Turning away from the window.) It is now too late.
ARABELLA.
Then let us try to forget. Let us have done with thinking. Let us be happy. You’re going away to-night; we shall not see you again for a long while.
DEAN.
I would not shift the blame upon any one. I’m thinking it out, that is all. Kirwan was the first noble mind I ever met, the first brain and energy, and my hope in myself is based on the fact that I was attracted to him at once. So much good there is in me. Yes, I recognised and acclaimed the true, the noble, the steadfast, the holy. So I cannot be entirely bad. But the influence of years is not shaken off at once, and I fell back into materialism; I am powerless to rise out of it for the moment; it will take years for me to free myself, but later on, years hence, I will come back and prove myself a worthy disciple. Tell Kirwan that, Aunt Arabella.
ARABELLA.
I will tell him; but, Jasper dear, you make us feel very sad. Years hence is a long while. May we not smile now? You’re going to marry the girl you love. Come here and sit by us, and let us talk about her.
Yes, I love Millicent, and I would do well to love her, for I have nothing but Millicent now.
CAROLINE.
I’m sorry, Jasper, that my influence has forced you into marrying the girl you love, for that is the charge against me.
DEAN.
My business now is to make Millicent happy, and I’ll think no more lest I should fail in that as in other things, so let us sit together as you say, and talk of happiness and wedding bells. (He sits beside them.)
CAROLINE.
I have to tell you, Jasper, that I have promised to marry Alderman Foley.
DEAN.
Alderman Foley!
CAROLINE.
Do you not approve?
DEAN.
I’m in no mood for questioning any one’s desires. I am outside of my real self, and you may tell a fellow-sufferer why you were tempted into this marriage.
CAROLINE.
Alderman Foley has been devoted for years, and this is the recompense of his devotion.
DEAN.
A very splendid way of putting it. I wonder you do not add that this is how you propose to redeem the family from the disgrace I have brought upon it ARABELLA.
Enough of recriminations. It is well known that everybody objects to everybody else’s marriage.
CAROLINE.
I do not object to Jasper’s. It is Jasper who objects to mine.
DEAN.
Well, aunt, I hope you’ll be happy. You ought to be, for I’m sure there is no shadow of doubt on your mind that you have done the right thing. (Sounds of tumult in the street, the women run to the window.)
ARABELLA.
The meeting must have broken up, there is a great crowd. The crowd with the band is going towards the other crowd, and there is Alderman Kirwan running.
CAROLINE.
Do you know, Arabella, I think he is running away from the crowd. I believe he is coming in here.
DEAN.
I cannot bring myself to meet him, I could not look him in the face. I will go. Do not say I’m here. And you, Aunt Caroline, try to be as little triumphant as possible. The victorious should pity the vanquished, to do so adds lustre to victory. — [Exit.
(Enter KIRWAN with coat torn and hat broken in. He sits down in deep depression.)
KIRWAN.
Miss Dean, excuse this hasty entrance. The maid had the door open watching the crowd and I came straight up. I had to escape them — they would have killed me.
CAROLINE.
Oh, Mr. Kirwan, I hope you’re not hurt!
(He shakes his head.)
ARABELLA. —
But won’t you tell us about the meeting?
KIRWAN.
Oh, like many another meeting, tumult among the many, a few in despa
ir.
CAROLINE.
But was not a leader chosen when Jasper’s absence was discovered?
KIRWAN.
In spite of my own better judgment I tried to unite them for a common end, and Ferguson accused me of keeping Jasper away to make myself the leader, and then they all wanted to be leaders and so the row began. (Furious tumult outside and sounds of glass broken, stones are thrown through the window.) The mob is chasing the Corporation up the street.
CAROLINE.
Mercy! We shall be murdered. Where are the police?
(The bells rings.)
ARABELLA.
Who are these coming in?
Enter ALDERMAN FERGUSON torn and bloody, ALDERMAN POLLOCK rather drunk and excited, and MICHAEL LEECH and MAYOR TENCH, their coats soiled and torn. The stage begins to darken slowly.)
FERGUSON.
It is some consolation that though I have not become leader myself, I have kept every one else from leading.
POLLOCK.
The day will come when the people will require common sense, then they will think of the old stock, they will come to Alderman Pollock. Hurrah for Alderman Pollock!
TENCH.
Come over here, James, and sit down, I’m afraid you’re not very well.
FERGUSON.
Where is Jasper? why was he not at the meeting?
CAROLINE.
I hope you’re not hurt, Alderman Ferguson!
FERGUSON.
If only Jasper had a thimbleful of courage I should not be in this plight. But I knew he was no good after yesterday. To think of these fools wanting to be leaders! That such mice should be ambitious!
ARABELLA.
Who was it that hurt you? May I get you something?
FERGUSON.
Thank you, I feel rather faint.
(ARABELLA rings; the MAID enters. ARABELLA gives her order; the MAID enters immediately after with tray and glasses.)
ARABELLA.
And you, Alderman Pollock, you will have something too?
POLLOCK.
Yes, thank you, I think I will. It happened as we were trying to get outside. That ruffian Macnee was cheering for Kirwan and I ventured to ask him a question.
FERGUSON.
And his arguments were decisive.
POLLOCK.
He pushed me, I fell, and the others walked on top of me. I always said he was a dangerous man, and warned the Corporation against employing him. I fancy I’m bleeding somewhere. (He pulls up his sleeve and examines his arm.)
ARABELLA.
