Prev | Current Page 110 | Next

Shaw, George Bernard, 1856-1950

"You Never Can Tell"

Look here---
MRS. CLANDON. Mr. Va---
VALENTINE (recklessly). No: I will speak: I've been silent for
nearly thirty seconds. (He goes up to Gloria.) Miss Clandon---
GLORIA (bitterly). Oh, not Miss Clandon: you have found that it is
quite safe to call me Gloria.
VALENTINE. No, I won't: you'll throw it in my teeth afterwards and
accuse me of disrespect. I say it's a heartbreaking falsehood that I
don't respect you. It's true that I didn't respect your old pride: why
should I? It was nothing but cowardice. I didn't respect your
intellect: I've a better one myself: it's a masculine specialty. But
when the depths stirred!---when my moment came!---when you made me
brave!---ah, then, then, t h e n!
GLORIA. Then you respected me, I suppose.
VALENTINE. No, I didn't: I adored you. (She rises quickly and turns
her back on him.) And you can never take that moment away from me. So
now I don't care what happens. (He comes down the room addressing a
cheerful explanation to nobody in particular.) I'm perfectly aware that
I'm talking nonsense. I can't help it. (To Mrs. Clandon.) I love
Gloria; and there's an end of it.
MRS. CLANDON (emphatically). Mr. Valentine: you are a most dangerous
man. Gloria: come here. (Gloria, wondering a little at the command,
obeys, and stands, with drooping head, on her mother's right hand,
Valentine being on the opposite side.


Pages:
98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122