Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw (world of reading TXT) 📕

epub:type="z3998:persona">Staff, consisting of Duval and the Anarchist on his right and the two Social-Democrats on his left, supporting him in flank. Ann It’s Jack! Tanner Caught! Hector Why, certainly it is. I said it was you, Tanner, We’ve just been stopped by a puncture: the road is full of nails. Violet What are you doing here with all these men? Ann Why did you leave us without a word of warning? Hector I want that bunch of roses, Miss Whitefield. To Tanner. When we found you were gone, Miss Whitefield bet me a bunch of roses my car would not overtake yours before you reached Monte Carlo. Tanner But this is not the road to Monte Carlo. Hector No matter. Miss Whitefield tracked you at every stopping place: she is a regular Sherlock Holmes. Tanner The life force! I am lost. Octavius Bounding gaily down from the road into the amphitheatre, and coming between Tanner and Straker. I am so glad you are safe, old chap. We were afraid you had been captured by brigands. Ramsden Who has been staring at Mendoza. I seem to remember the face of your friend here. Mendoza rises politely and advances with a smile between Ann and Ramsden. Hector Why, so do I. Octavius I know you perfectly well, Sir; but I can’t think where I have met you. Mendoza To Violet. Do you remember me, madam? Violet Oh, quite well; but I am so stupid about names. Mendoza It was at the Savoy Hotel. To Hector. You, sir, used to come with this lady Violet to lunch. To Octavius. You, sir, often brought this lady Ann and her mother to dinner on your way to the Lyceum Theatre. To Ramsden. You, sir, used to come to supper, with dropping his voice to a confidential but perfectly audible whisper several different ladies. Ramsden Angrily. Well, what is that to you, pray? Octavius Why, Violet, I thought you hardly knew one another before this trip, you and Malone! Violet Vexed. I suppose this person was the manager. Mendoza The waiter, madam. I have a grateful recollection of you all. I gathered from the bountiful way in which you treated me that you all enjoyed your visits very much. Violet What impertinence! She turns her back on him, and goes up the hill with Hector. Ramsden That will do, my friend. You do not expect these ladies to treat you as an acquaintance, I suppose, because you have waited on them at table. Mendoza Pardon me: it was you who claimed my acquaintance. The ladies followed your example. However, this display of the unfortunate manners of your class closes the incident. For the future, you will please address me with the respect due to a stranger and fellow traveller. He turns haughtily away and resumes his presidential seat. Tanner There! I have found one man on my journey capable of reasonable conversation; and you all instinctively insult him. Even the New Man is as bad as any of you. Enry: you have behaved just like a miserable gentleman. Straker Gentleman! Not me. Ramsden Really, Tanner, this tone⁠— Ann Don’t mind him, Granny: you ought to know him by this time She takes his arm and coaxes him away to the hill to join Violet and Hector. Octavius follows her, doglike. Violet Calling from the hill. Here are the soldiers. They are getting out of their motors. Duval Panicstricken. Oh, nom de Dieu! The Anarchist Fools: the state is about to crush you because you spared it at the prompting of the political hangers-on of the bourgeoisie. The Sulky Social-Democrat Argumentative to the last. On the contrary, only by capturing the state machine⁠— The Anarchist It is going to capture you. The Rowdy Social-Democrat His anguish culminating. Ow, chock it. Wot are we ere for? Wot are we wytin for? Mendoza Between his teeth. Goon. Talk politics, you idiots: nothing sounds more respectable. Keep it up, I tell you. The soldiers line the road, commanding the amphitheatre with their rifles. The brigands, struggling with an overwhelming impulse to hide behind one another, look as unconcerned as they can. Mendoza rises superbly, with undaunted front. The officer in command steps down from the road in to the amphitheatre; looks hard at the brigands; and then inquiringly at Tanner. The Officer Who are these men, Señor Ingles? Tanner My escort. Mendoza, with a Mephistophelean smile, bows profoundly. An irrepressible grin runs from face to face among the brigands. They touch their hats, except the Anarchist, who defies the state with folded arms. Act IV

The garden of a villa in Granada. Whoever wishes to know what it is like must go to Granada and see. One may prosaically specify a group of hills dotted with villas, the Alhambra on the top of one of the hills, and a considerable town in the valley, approached by dusty white roads in which the children, no matter what they are doing or thinking about, automatically whine for halfpence and reach out little clutching brown palms for them; but there is nothing in this description except the Alhambra, the begging, and the color of the roads, that does not fit Surrey as well as Spain. The difference is that the Surrey hills are comparatively small and ugly, and should properly be called the Surrey Protuberances; but these Spanish hills are of mountain stock: the amenity which conceals their size does not compromise their dignity.

This particular garden is on a hill opposite the Alhambra; and the villa is as expensive and pretentious as a villa must be if it is to be let furnished by the week to opulent American and English visitors. If we stand on the lawn at the foot of the garden and look uphill, our horizon is the stone balustrade of a flagged platform on the edge of infinite space