George Bernard Shaw a penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication

toast from the fender.)
RICHARD
. I am sorry, for your sake, that I am—what I
am. Allow me. (He takes the plate from her and goes with it to
the table.)
JUDITH 
(following with the teapot). Will you sit down? (He
sits down at the end of the table nearest the press. There is a plate
and knife laid there. The other plate is laid near it; but Judith
stays at the opposite end of the table, next the fire, and takes her
place there, drawing the tray towards her.) Do you take sugar?
RICHARD
. No; but plenty of milk. Let me give you some
toast. (He puts some on the second plate, and hands it to her,
with the knife. The action shows quietly how well he knows that
she has avoided her usual place so as to be as far from him as
possible.)
JUDITH 
(consciously). Thanks. (She gives him his tea.) Won’t
you help yourself?
RICHARD
. Thanks. (He puts a piece of toast on his own plate;
and she pours out tea for herself.)
JUDITH 
(observing that he tastes nothing). Don’t you like it?
You are not eating anything.
RICHARD
. Neither are you.
JUDITH 
(nervously). I never care much for my tea. Please
don’t mind me.
RICHARD 
(Looking dreamily round). I am thinking. It is all
so strange to me. I can see the beauty and peace of this home:
I think I have never been more at rest in my life than at this
moment; and yet I know quite well I could never live here.
It’s not in my nature, I suppose, to be domesticated. But it’s
very beautiful: it’s almost holy. (He muses a moment, and then
laughs softly.)
JUDITH 
(quickly). Why do you laugh?
RICHARD
. I was thinking that if any stranger came in here
now, he would take us for man and wife.
JUDITH 
(taking offence). You mean, I suppose, that you are
more my age than he is.
RICHARD 
(staring at this unexpected turn). I never thought
of such a thing. (Sardonic again.) I see there is another side
to domestic joy.
JUDITH 
(angrily). I would rather have a husband whom
everybody respects than—than—

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34
The Devil’s Disciple
RICHARD
. Than the devil’s disciple. You are right; but I
daresay your love helps him to be a good man, just as your
hate helps me to be a bad one.
JUDITH
. My husband has been very good to you. He has
forgiven you for insulting him, and is trying to save you.
Can you not forgive him for being so much better than you
are? How dare you belittle him by putting yourself in his
place?
RICHARD
. Did I?
JUDITH
. Yes, you did. You said that if anybody came in
they would take us for man and—(she stops, terror-stricken,
as a squad of soldiers tramps past the window) The English
soldiers! Oh, what do they—
RICHARD 
(listening). Sh!
A VOICE 
(outside). Halt! Four outside: two in with me.
Judith half rises, listening and looking with dilated eyes at Ri-
chard, who takes up his cup prosaically, and is drinking his tea
when the latch goes up with a sharp click, and an English ser-
geant walks into the room with two privates, who post them-
selves at the door. He comes promptly to the table between them.
THE SERGEANT
. Sorry to disturb you, mum! duty! An-
thony Anderson: I arrest you in King George’s name as a
rebel.
JUDITH 
(pointing at Richard). But that is not— (He looks