HOTCHKISS [springing up] Polly!
MRS GEORGE. Sooner than be your slave I'd face any unhappiness.
HOTCHKISS. What! Even for George?
MRS GEORGE. There must be honor between me and George, happiness
or no happiness. Do your worst.
HOTCHKISS [admiring her] Are you really game, Polly? Dare you
defy me?
MRS GEORGE. If you ask me another question I shant be able to
keep my hands off you [she dashes distractedly past him to the
other end of the table, her fingers crisping].
HOTCHKISS. That settles it. Polly: I adore you: we were born for
one another. As I happen to be a gentleman, I'll never do
anything to annoy or injure you except that I reserve the right
to give you a black eye if you bite me; but youll never get rid
of me now to the end of your life.
MRS GEORGE. I shall get rid of you if the beadle has to brain you
with the mace for it [she makes for the tower].
HOTCHKISS [running between the table and the oak chest and across
to the tower to cut her off] You shant.
MRS GEORGE [panting] Shant I though?
HOTCHKISS. No you shant. I have one card left to play that youve
forgotten. Why were you so unlike yourself when you spoke to the
Bishop?
MRS GEORGE [agitated beyond measure] Stop. Not that. You shall
respect that if you respect nothing else. I forbid you. [He
kneels at her feet]. What are you doing? Get up: dont be a fool.
HOTCHKISS. Polly: I ask you on my knees to let me make George's
acquaintance in his home this afternoon; and I shall remain on my
knees till the Bishop comes in and sees us. What will he think of
you then?
MRS GEORGE [beside herself] Wheres the poker? She rushes to the
fireplace; seizes the poker; and makes for Hotchkiss, who flies
to the study door. The Bishop enters just then and finds himself
between them, narrowly escaping a blow from the poker.
THE BISHOP. Dont hit him, Mrs Collins. He is my guest.
Mrs George throws down the poker; collapses into the nearest
chair; and bursts into tears. The Bishop goes to her and pats her
consolingly on the shoulder. She shudders all through at his
touch.
THE BISHOP. Come! you are in the house of your friends. Can we
help you?
MRS GEORGE [to Hotchkiss, pointing to the study] Go in there,
you. Youre not wanted here.
HOTCHKISS. You understand, Bishop, that Mrs Collins is not to
blame for this scene. I'm afraid Ive been rather irritating.
THE BISHOP. I can quite believe it, Sinjon.
Hotchkiss goes into the study.
THE BISHOP [turning to Mrs George with great kindness of manner]
I'm sorry you have been worried [he sits down on her left]. Never
mind him. A little pluck, a little gaiety of heart, a little
prayer; and youll be laughing at him.
MRS GEORGE. Never fear. I have all that. It was as much my fault
as his; and I should have put him in his place with a clip of
that poker on the side of his head if you hadnt come in.
THE BISHOP. You might have put him in his coffin that way, Mrs
Collins. And I should have been very sorry; because we are all
fond of Sinjon.
MRS GEORGE. Yes: it's your duty to rebuke me. But do you think I
dont know?
THE BISHOP. I dont rebuke you. Who am I that I should rebuke you?
Besides, I know there are discussions in which the poker is the
only possible argument.
MRS GEORGE. My lord: be earnest with me. I'm a very funny woman,
I daresay; but I come from the same workshop as you. I heard you
say that yourself years ago.
THE BISHOP. Quite so; but then I'm a very funny Bishop. Since we
are both funny people, let us not forget that humor is a divine
attribute.
MRS GEORGE. I know nothing about divine attributes or whatever
you call them; but I can feel when I am being belittled. It was
from you that I learnt first to respect myself. It was through
you that I came to be able to walk safely through many wild and
wilful paths. Dont go back on your own teaching.
THE BISHOP. I'm not a teacher: only a fellow-traveller of whom
you asked the way. I pointed ahead--ahead of myself as well as of
you.
MRS GEORGE [rising and standing over him almost threateningly] As
I'm a living woman this day, if I find you out to be a fraud,
I'll kill myself.
THE BISHOP. What! Kill yourself for finding out something! For
becoming a wiser and therefore a better woman! What a bad reason!
MRS GEORGE. I have sometimes thought of killing you, and then
killing myself.
THE BISHOP. Why on earth should you kill yourself--not to mention
me?
MRS GEORGE. So that we might keep our assignation in Heaven.
THE BISHOP [rising and facing her, breathless] Mrs. Collins! YOU
are Incognita Appassionata!
MRS GEORGE. You read my letters, then? [With a sigh of grateful
relief, she sits down quietly, and says] Thank you.
THE BISHOP [remorsefully] And I have broken the spell by making
you come here [sitting down again]. Can you ever forgive me?
MRS GEORGE. You couldnt know that it was only the coal merchant's
wife, could you?
THE BISHOP. Why do you say only the coal merchant's wife?
MRS GEORGE. Many people would laugh at it.
THE BISHOP. Poor people! It's so hard to know the right place to
laugh, isnt it?
MRS GEORGE. I didnt mean to make you think the letters were from
a fine lady. I wrote on cheap paper; and I never could spell.
THE BISHOP. Neither could I. So that told me nothing.
MRS GEORGE. One thing I should like you to know.
THE BISHOP. Yes?
MRS GEORGE. We didnt cheat your friend. They were as good as we
could do at thirteen shillings a ton.
THE BISHOP. Thats important. Thank you for telling me.
MRS GEORGE. I have something else to say; but will you please ask
somebody to come and stay here while we talk? [He rises and turns
to the study door]. Not a woman, if you dont mind. [He nods
understandingly and passes on]. Not a man either.
THE BISHOP [stopping] Not a man and not a woman! We have no
children left, Mrs Collins. They are all grown up and married.
MRS GEORGE. That other clergyman would do.
THE BISHOP. What! The sexton?
MRS GEORGE. Yes. He didnt mind my calling him that, did he? It
was only my ignorance.
THE BISHOP. Not at all. [He opens the study door and calls]
Soames! Anthony! [To Mrs George] Call him Father: he likes it.
[Soames appears at the study door]. Mrs Collins wishes you to join
us, Anthony.
Soames looks puzzled.
MRS GEORGE. You dont mind, Dad, do you? [As this greeting visibly
gives him a shock that hardly bears out the Bishop's advice, she
says anxiously] That was what you told me to call him, wasnt it?
SOAMES. I am called Father Anthony, Mrs Collins. But it does not
matter what you call me. [He comes in, and walks past her to the
hearth].
THE BISHOP. Mrs Collins has something to say to me that she wants
you to hear.
SOAMES. I am listening.
THE BISHOP [going back to his seat next her] Now.
MRS GEORGE. My lord: you should never have married.
SOAMES. This woman is inspired. Listen to her, my lord.
THE BISHOP [taken aback by the directness of the attack] I
married because I was so much in love with Alice that all the
difficulties and doubts and dangers of marriage seemed to me the
merest moonshine.
MRS GEORGE. Yes: it's mean to let poor things in for so much
while theyre in that state. Would you marry now that you know
better if you were a widower?
THE BISHOP. I'm old now. It wouldnt matter.
MRS GEORGE. But would you if it did matter?
THE BISHOP. I think I should marry again lest anyone should
imagine I had found marriage unhappy with Alice.
SOAMES [sternly] Are you fonder of your wife than of your
salvation?
THE BISHOP. Oh, very much. When you meet a man who is very
particular about his salvation, look out for a woman who is very
particular about her character; and marry them to one another:
theyll make a perfect pair. I advise you to fall in love;
Anthony.
SOAMES [with horror] I!!
THE BISHOP. Yes, you! think of what it would do for you. For her
sake you would come to care unselfishly and diligently for money
instead of being selfishly and lazily indifferent to it. For her
sake you would come to care in the same way for preferment. For
her sake you would come to care for your health, your appearance,
the good opinion of your fellow creatures, and all the really
important things that make men work and strive instead of mooning
and nursing their salvation.
SOAMES. In one word, for the sake of one deadly sin I should come
to care for all the others.
THE BISHOP. Saint Anthony! Tempt him, Mrs Collins: tempt him.
MRS GEORGE [rising and looking strangely before her] Take care,
my lord: you still have the power to make me obey your commands.
And do you, Mr Sexton, beware of an empty heart.
THE BISHOP. Yes. Nature abhors a vacuum, Anthony. I would not
dare go about with an empty heart: why, the first girl I met
would fly into it by mere atmospheric pressure. Alice keeps them
out now. Mrs Collins knows.
MRS GEORGE [a faint convulsion passing like a wave over her] I
know more than either of you. One of you has not yet exhausted
his first love: the other has not yet reached it. But I--I--[she
reels and is again convulsed].
THE BISHOP [saving her from falling] Whats the matter? Are you
ill, Mrs Collins? [He gets her back into her chair]. Soames:
theres a glass of water in the study--quick. [Soames hurries to
the study door.]
MRS. GEORGE. No. [Soames stops]. Dont call. Dont bring anyone.
Cant you hear anything?
THE BISHOP. Nothing unusual. [He sits by her, watching her with
intense surprise and interest].
MRS GEORGE. No music?
SOAMES. No. [He steals to the end of the table and sits on her
right, equally interested].
MRS GEORGE. Do you see nothing--not a great light?
THE BISHOP. We are still walking in darkness.
MRS GEORGE. Put your hand on my forehead: the hand with the ring.
[He does so. Her eyes close].
SOAMES [inspired to prophesy] There was a certain woman, the wife
of a coal merchant, which had been a great sinner . . .
The Bishop, startled, takes his hand away. Mrs George's eyes open
vividly as she interrupts Soames.
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?