MRS GEORGE. Well, you dont expect them to give themselves away,
do you?
HOTCHKISS. They are people of sentiment, not of honor. Now, I'm
not a man of sentiment, but a man of honor. I know well what will
happen to me when once I cross the threshold of your husband's
house and break bread with him. This marriage bond which I
despise will bind me as it never seems to bind the people who
believe in it, and whose chief amusement it is to go to the
theatres where it is laughed at. Soames: youre a Communist, arnt
you?
SOAMES. I am a Christian. That obliges me to be a Communist.
HOTCHKISS. And you believe that many of our landed estates were
stolen from the Church by Henry the eighth?
SOAMES. I do not merely believe that: I know it as a lawyer.
HOTCHKISS. Would you steal a turnip from one of the landlords of
those stolen lands?
SOAMES [fencing with the question] They have no right to their
lands.
HOTCHKISS. Thats not what I ask you. Would you steal a turnip
from one of the fields they have no right to?
SOAMES. I do not like turnips.
HOTCHKISS. As you are a lawyer, answer me.
SOAMES. I admit that I should probably not do so. I should
perhaps be wrong not to steal the turnip: I cant defend my
reluctance to do so; but I think I should not do so.
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