George Bernard Shaw

“ Lady Geraldine stamped hastily on Mary's foot, and looked reproachfully at her.
Mary felt her color deepen, but she faced him boldly.
"And have you come the usual conclusions?" he said, sitting down near them.
"What are the usual conclusions?" said Mary.
"That marriage is a mistake. That men who surrender their liberty, and women who surrender their independence are fools. That children are a nuisance, and so forth." ”

“ When you have had as much experience as I, you will know that genius no more qualifies a man to be a husband than good looks, or fine manners, or noble birth, or anything else out of a story book."
"But want of genius is still less a qualification."
"Genius, Mary, is a positive disqualification. Geniuses are morbid, intolerant, easily offended, sleeplessly self-conscious men, who expect their wives to be angels with no further business in life than to pet and worship their husbands. ”

“ Even at the best they are not comfortable men to live with; and a perfect husband is one who is perfectly comfortable to live with. Look at the matter practically. Do you suppose, you foolish child, that I am a bit less happy because Sir John does not know a Raphael from a Redgrave, and would accept the last waltz cheerfully as a genuine something-or-other by Bach in B minor? Our tastes are quite different; and, to confess the truth, I was no more romantically in love with him when we were married than you are at present with Mr Hoskyn. ”

“ In his company Mary felt neither the anxiety to appear at her best with which Herbert's delicate taste and nervous solicitude for her dignity had always inspired her, nor the circumspection which she had found necessary to avoid offending the exacting temper of Jack. In their different ways, both men had humbled her. Hoskyn admired her person, and held her acquirements to awe, without being himself in the least humbled, although he exalted her without stint. ”

“ Then there were two sisters, Sarah and Lizzie Hoskyn. I can remember Lizzie when she was exactly like your brother Dick's wife. She married a great Cornhill goldsmith in her first season. Altogether, they are a wonderful family: making money, marrying money, putting each other in the way of making and marrying more, and falling on their feet everywhere."
"Are they the sort of people you like?"
"What do you mean by that, my dear?"
"I think I mean what I say," said Mary laughing. "But do you think, for example, that Mrs. Phipson's brothers and sisters are ladies and gentlemen?" ”

“ It must be terrible to live in constant dread of childish explosions of temper from one's husband, or to fear, at every crisis, that he will not act like a man of sense and honor."
Conolly looked at her curiously, and then, with an intent deliberation, that gave the fullest emphasis to his words, leaned a little toward her with his hands upon his knees, and said "Did you ever live with a person whose temper was imperturbable—who never hesitated to apply his principles, and never swerved from acting as they dictated? ”

“ If she had married man like Hoskyn, she could have been a happy wife and mother today. But she was like you she thought that taking a husband was the same thing as engaging gentleman to talk art criticism with."
"I think I had better advertise, 'Wanted: a comfortable husband. Applicants need not be handsome, as the lady is short-sighted. It sounds very prosaic, Lady Geraldine."
"It is prosaic. I told you once before that the world is is not a stage for you to play the heroine on. Like all young people, you want an exalted motive for every step you take." ”

“ A man who is complete in himself needs no wife. If you value your happiness, seek for someone who needs you, who begs for you, and who, because loneliness is death to him, will never cease to need you. Have I made myself clear?"
" Yes," said Mary. "I think I understand, though I do not say I agree."
Sir John came in just then, opportunely enough, and he found Conolly quite willing to talk about the prospects of the Company, although the ladies were thereby excluded from any part or interest in the conversation. ”

“ Hoskyn?"
Lady. Geraldine hesitated. "I think you can hardly expect me to take the responsibility of directly advising you to marry any man. It is one of the things that people must do for themselves. But I certainly advise you not to be deterred from marrying him by any supposed incompatibility in your tastes, or by his not being a man of genius."
"I wonder would Mr. Conolly marry me."
"Mary!"
"It was an unmaidenly remark," said Mary, laughing."
"It is undignified for a sensible girl to play at being silly, Mary. I hope you have no serious intention beneath your jesting. ”

“ Perhaps Miss Sutherland will be content with nothing less than a hero."
"No," said Mary. "But T will never admit that a man is not the better for being a hero. According to you, he is the worse. I heartily despise a woman who marries a fool in order that she may live comfortably despotic in her own house. I do not make absolute heroism an indispensable condition—I do not know exactly what heroism means; but I think a man may reasonably be expected to be free from vulgar prejudices against the efforts of artists to make life beautiful ”

“ Can anything be more unamiable? Such a man ought to be a judge, or an executioner."
"After all, he is only a man; and he must have some feeling," said Mary.
"If he has he ought to show it," said Lady Geraldine. A servant just then entered with letters which had come by the evening mail. There were some for Mary; among them one addressed in a rapid business hand which she did not recognize. She opened them absently, thinking that a little experience of Herbert and Jack would soon remove Lady Geraldine's objection to Conolly's power of self-control. ”

“ Lady Geraldine, who had turned her chair so as to avert her face from him, looked round. Disregarding this mute protest, he continued, addressing Mary. "Will you tell me the point at issue?"
"It is not so very important," said Mary, a little confused. "We were only exchanging a few casual remarks. A question arose as to whether the best men make the best husbands. I mean the cleverest men—men of genius, for instance. ”

“ She saw acrobats, conjurers, Christy Minstrels, panoramas, and shows of cats, goats, and dairy implements; and she felt half ashamed of herself for enjoying them. She went for the first time in her life to a circus, to a music hall, and to athletic sports at Lillie Bridge. After the athletic sports, she went up the river in a cheap excursion steamer to Hampton Court, where she hardly looked at the pictures, and occupied herself solely with the other objects of interest, which she had neglected on previous visits. ”

“ I suppose you will go back to Trouville until we all return to London.—I am, dear Mr. Hoskyn,
Yours sincerely,
Mary Sutherland.
Mary composed this letter with difficulty, and submitted it to Lady Geraldine, who said, "It is not very loving. That about your social duties is a fib. And you want him to go to Trouville because he cannot write so often."
"I can do no better," said Mary. "But you are right. I will burn it and write him another, refusing him point blank. That will be the shortest." ”

“ She was the only woman in England worthy of him: he the only man worthy of her. Well, she married him, in spite of the patent fact that with all his genius, he is a most uncomfortable person. She endured him for two years then ran away with an arrogant blockhead who had nothing to recommend him to her except an imposing appearance and an extreme unlikeness to her husband. ”

“ He is a dangerous subject. Let us leave him and come back to our main business. Is Mr. Hoskyn to be made happy or not?"
"I don't want to marry at all. Let him have Miss Cairns: she would suit him exactly."
"Well, if you don't want to marry at all, my dear, there is an end of it. I have said all I can. You must decide for yourself."
Mary, perceiving that Lady Geraldine felt offended, was about to make a soothing speech, when she heard a chair move, and, looking up saw that Conolly was in the room. ”

“ The hotel is full of Americans; and I have scraped acquaintance with most of them; but I am none the livelier for that: somebody or something has left a hole in this metropolis that all the Americans alive cannot fill. ”

“ What do you think?"
"I still think we had better abandon the subject."
"For the present?"
"Forever, if you please, Mr Hoskyn."
"For ever is a long word. I've been too abrupt. But you can turn it over in your mind whilst amusing yourself in Devonshire. There is no use in bothering yourself about it now, when we are all separating. Hush. Here's Nanny."
Mary was prevented by the entrance of Mrs Phipson from distinctly refusing Mr Hoskyn's proposal. ”

“ I am afraid I was rather vague; and though it does not do to be too business-like on such occasions, still, you have a right to know to a fraction what my proposal means. I know you are too sensible to suppose that I am going into particulars from want of the good old-fashioned sentiment which ought to be the main point in all such matters, or by way of offering you an additional inducement. If you had only yourself to look to, I think I should have pluck enough to ask you to shut your eyes and open your mouth so far as money is concerned ”

“ He would make an excellent God, but a most unpleasant man, and an unbearable husband. What could you be to a wholly self-sufficient man? Affection would be a superfluity with which you would be ashamed to trouble him. ”

“ Rich middle class tradespeople have had their own way in society and in everything else as long as I can remember. Even if we could go back to the ladies and gentlemen now, we could not stand them. Look at the county set here—either vapid people with affected manners, or pigheaded people with no manners at all. Each set seems the worst until you try another."
"I quite agree with you—I mean about the Hoskyns, " said Mary. And she changed the subject. But at bedtime, when she bade Lady Geraldine goodnight, she handed her Hoskyn's letter, saying, "Read that ”

“ Conolly had thereupon divorced her, and resumed his bachelor life, displaying so little concern, that many who knew her had since regarded him with mistrust and dislike, feeling that he was not the man to make a home for a young woman accustomed to the tenderest consideration and most chivalrous courtesy in her father's set. ”

“ We shall have a couple of electro-motors harnessed to the pony phaeton shortly."
"Mr Conolly is coming on business then."
"Of course he is coming to pay a visit and make a holiday. But he will incidentally take notes of how the place can be most inconveniently upset with his machinery."
"You are not glad that he is coming."
"I am indifferent. So many people come here in the autumn whom I don't care for that I have become hardened to the labor of entertaining them. I like to have young people about me. Sir John, of course, has to do with men of business and politicians ”