CONRAD.  Short for Savage.

LUBIN [patting her hand] La belle Sauvage.

HASLAM [rising and surrendering Savvy to Lubin by crossing to the fireplace] I suppose the Church is out of it as far as progressive politics are concerned.

BURGE.  Nonsense!  That notion about the Church being unprogressive is one of those shibboleths that our party must drop.  The Church is all right essentially.  Get rid of the establishment; get rid of the bishops; get rid of the candlesticks; get rid of the 39 articles; and the Church of England is just as good as any other Church; and I don’t care who hears me say so.

LUBIN.  It doesn’t matter a bit who hears you say so, my dear Burge. [To
Savvy] Who did you say your favorite poet was?

SAVVY.  I dont make pets of poets.  Who’s yours?

LUBIN.  Horace.

SAVVY.  Horace who?

LUBIN.  Quintus Horatius Flaccus:  the noblest Roman of them all, my dear.

SAVVY.  Oh, if he is dead, that explains it.  I have a theory that all the dead people we feel especially interested in must have been ourselves.  You must be Horace’s reincarnation.

LUBIN [delighted] That is the very most charming and penetrating and intelligent thing that has ever been said to me.  Barnabas:  will you exchange daughters with me?  I can give you your choice of two.

FRANKLYN.  Man proposes.  Savvy disposes.

LUBIN.  What does Savvy say?

BURGE.  Lubin:  I came here to talk politics.

LUBIN.  Yes:  you have only one subject, Burge.  I came here to talk to
Savvy.  Take Burge into the next room, Barnabas; and let him rip.

BURGE [half-angry, half-indulgent] No; but really, Lubin, we are at a crisis—­

LUBIN.  My dear Burge, life is a disease; and the only difference between one man and another is the stage of the disease at which he lives.  You are always at the crisis; I am always in the convalescent stage.  I enjoy convalescence.  It is the part that makes the illness worth while.

SAVVY [half-rising] Perhaps I’d better run away.  I am distracting you.

LUBIN [making her sit down again] Not at all, my dear.  You are only distracting Burge.  Jolly good thing for him to be distracted by a pretty girl.  Just what he needs.

BURGE.  I sometimes envy you, Lubin.  The great movement of mankind, the giant sweep of the ages, passes you by and leaves you standing.

LUBIN.  It leaves me sitting, and quite comfortable, thank you.  Go on sweeping.  When you are tired of it, come back; and you will find England where it was, and me in my accustomed place, with Miss Savvy telling me all sorts of interesting things.

SAVVY [who has been growing more and more restless] Dont let him shut you up, Mr Burge.  You know, Mr Lubin, I am frightfully interested in the Labor movement, and in Theosophy, and in reconstruction after the war, and all sorts of things.  I daresay the flappers in your smart set are tremendously flattered when you sit beside them and are nice to them as you are being nice to me; but I am not smart; and I am no use as a flapper.  I am dowdy and serious.  I want you to be serious.  If you refuse, I shall go and sit beside Mr Burge, and ask him to hold my hand.