George Bernard Shaw a penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication

brooding over her wrongs and taking no further notice of him.)
ANDERSON 
(willing enough to escape). The Lord forbid
that I should come between you and the source of all com-
fort! (He goes to the rack for his coat and hat.)
MRS. DUDGEON 
(without looking at him). The Lord will
know what to forbid and what to allow without your help.
ANDERSON
. And whom to forgive, I hope—Eli Hawkins
and myself, if we have ever set up our preaching against His
law. (He fastens his cloak, and is now ready to go.) Just one
word—on necessary business, Mrs. Dudgeon. There is the
reading of the will to be gone through; and Richard has a
right to be present. He is in the town; but he has the grace to
say that he does not want to force himself in here.
MRS. DUDGEON
. He shall come here. Does he expect us
to leave his father’s house for his convenience? Let them all
come, and come quickly, and go quickly. They shall not make
the will an excuse to shirk half their day’s work. I shall be
ready, never fear.
ANDERSON 
(coming back a step or two). Mrs. Dudgeon: I
used to have some little influence with you. When did I lose it?
MRS. DUDGEON 
(still without turning to him). When you
married for love. Now you’re answered.
ANDERSON
. Yes: I am answered. (He goes out, musing.)
MRS. DUDGEON 
(to herself, thinking of her husband).
Thief! Thief!! (She shakes herself angrily out of the chair; throws

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GB Shaw
back the shawl from her head; and sets to work to prepare
the room for the reading of the will, beginning by replacing
Anderson’s chair against the wall, and pushing back her own
to the window. Then she calls, in her hard, driving, wrathful
way) Christy. (No answer: he is fast asleep.) Christy. (She shakes
him roughly.) Get up out of that; and be ashamed of your-
self—sleeping, and your father dead! (She returns to the table;
puts the candle on the mantelshelf; and takes from the table
drawer a red table cloth which she spreads.)
CHRISTY 
(rising reluctantly). Well, do you suppose we are
never going to sleep until we are out of mourning?
MRS. DUDGEON
. I want none of your sulks. Here: help
me to set this table. (They place the table in the middle of the
room, with Christy’s end towards the fireplace and Mrs.
Dudgeon’s towards the sofa. Christy drops the table as soon as
possible, and goes to the fire, leaving his mother to make the
final adjustments of its position.) We shall have the minister
back here with the lawyer and all the family to read the will
before you have done toasting yourself. Go and wake that
girl; and then light the stove in the shed: you can’t have your
breakfast here. And mind you wash yourself, and make your-
self fit to receive the company. (She punctuates these orders by
going to the cupboard; unlocking it; and producing a decanter
of wine, which has no doubt stood there untouched since the last
state occasion in the family, and some glasses, which she sets on
the table. Also two green ware plates, on one of which she puts a
barmbrack with a knife beside it. On the other she shakes some
biscuits out of a tin, putting back one or two, and counting the
rest.) Now mind: there are ten biscuits there: let there be ten
there when I come back after dressing myself. And keep your
fingers off the raisins in that cake. And tell Essie the same. I
suppose I can trust you to bring in the case of stuffed birds
without breaking the glass? (She replaces the tin in the cup-