Major Barbara - George Bernard Shaw (best e book reader .TXT) 📗

and looks out. Cusins drifts amiably to the armchair, and Lomax remains near the door, whilst Sarah comes to her mother. Sarah Go and get ready, mamma: the carriage is waiting. Lady Britomart leaves the room. Undershaft To Sarah. Good day, my dear. Good afternoon, Mr. Lomax. Lomax Vaguely. Ahdedoo. Undershaft To Cusins. quite well after last night, Euripides, eh? Cusins As well as can be expected. Undershaft That’s right. To Barbara. So you are coming to see my death and devastation factory, Barbara? Barbara At the window. You came yesterday to see my salvation factory. I promised you a return visit. Lomax Coming forward between Sarah and Undershaft. You’ll find it awfully interesting. I’ve been through the Woolwich Arsenal; and it gives you a ripping feeling of security, you know, to think of the lot of beggars we could kill if it came to fighting. To Undershaft, with sudden solemnity. Still, it must be rather an awful reflection for you, from the religious point of view as it were. You’re getting on, you know, and all that. Sarah You don’t mind Cholly’s imbecility, papa, do you? Lomax Much taken aback. Oh I say! Undershaft Mr. Lomax looks at the matter in a very proper spirit, my dear. Lomax Just so. That’s all I meant, I assure you. Sarah Are you coming, Stephen? Stephen Well, I am rather busy⁠—er⁠—Magnanimously. Oh well, yes: I’ll come. That is, if there is room for me. Undershaft I can take two with me in a little motor I am experimenting with for field use. You won’t mind its being rather unfashionable. It’s not painted yet; but it’s bullet proof. Lomax Appalled at the prospect of confronting Wilton Crescent in an unpainted motor. Oh I say! Sarah The carriage for me, thank you. Barbara doesn’t mind what she’s seen in. Lomax I say, Dolly old chap: do you really mind the car being a guy? Because of course if you do I’ll go in it. Still⁠— Cusins I prefer it. Lomax Thanks awfully, old man. Come, Sarah. He hurries out to secure his seat in the carriage. Sarah follows him. Cusins Moodily walking across to Lady Britomart’s writing table. Why are we two coming to this Works Department of Hell? that is what I ask myself. Barbara I have always thought of it as a sort of pit where lost creatures with blackened faces stirred up smoky fires and were driven and tormented by my father. Is it like that, dad? Undershaft Scandalized. My dear! It is a spotlessly clean and beautiful hillside town. Cusins With a Methodist chapel? Oh do say there’s a Methodist chapel. Undershaft There are two: a primitive one and a sophisticated one. There is even an Ethical Society; but it is not much patronized, as my men are all strongly religious. In the High Explosives Sheds they object to the presence of Agnostics as unsafe. Cusins And yet they don’t object to you! Barbara Do they obey all your orders? Undershaft I never give them any orders. When I speak to one of them it is “Well, Jones, is the baby doing well? and has Mrs. Jones made a good recovery?” “Nicely, thank you, sir.” And that’s all. Cusins But Jones has to be kept in order. How do you maintain discipline among your men? Undershaft I don’t. They do. You see, the one thing Jones won’t stand is any rebellion from the man under him, or any assertion of social equality between the wife of the man with 4 shillings a week less than himself and Mrs. Jones! Of course they all rebel against me, theoretically. Practically, every man of them keeps the man just below him in his place. I never meddle with them. I never bully them. I don’t even bully Lazarus. I say that certain things are to be done; but I don’t order anybody to do them. I don’t say, mind you, that there is no ordering about and snubbing and even bullying. The men snub the boys and order them about; the carmen snub the sweepers; the artisans snub the unskilled laborers; the foremen drive and bully both the laborers and artisans; the assistant engineers find fault with the foremen; the chief engineers drop on the assistants; the departmental managers worry the chiefs; and the clerks have tall hats and hymnbooks and keep up the social tone by refusing to associate on equal terms with anybody. The result is a colossal profit, which comes to me. Cusins Revolted. You really are a⁠—well, what I was saying yesterday. Barbara What was he saying yesterday? Undershaft Never mind, my dear. He thinks I have made you unhappy. Have I? Barbara Do you think I can be happy in this vulgar silly dress? I! who have worn the uniform. Do you understand what you have done to me? Yesterday I had a man’s soul in my hand. I set him in the way of life with his face to salvation. But when we took your money he turned back to drunkenness and derision. With intense conviction. I will never forgive you that. If I had a child, and you destroyed its body with your explosives⁠—if you murdered Dolly with your horrible guns⁠—I could forgive you if my forgiveness would open the gates of heaven to you. But to take a human soul from me, and turn it into the soul of a wolf! that is worse than any murder. Undershaft Does my daughter despair so easily? Can you strike a man to the heart and leave no mark on him? Barbara Her face lighting up. Oh, you are right: he can never be lost now: where was my faith? Cusins Oh, clever clever devil! Barbara You may be a devil; but God speaks through you sometimes. She takes her father’s hands and kisses them. You have given me back my happiness: I feel it deep down now, though my spirit is troubled. Undershaft You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something. Barbara Well, take