MR. BARLOW. Ah, Henrietta--you have said all this before.
MRS. BARLOW. And say it again. Fight, Gerald. You have my blood in
you, thank God. Fight for it, Gerald. Spend it as if it were costly,
Gerald, drop by drop. Let no dogs lap it.--Look at your father. He
set his heart on a plate at the door, for the poorest mongrel to eat
up. See him now, wasted and crossed out like a mistake--and swear,
Gerald, swear to be true to my blood in you. Never lie down before
the mob, Gerald. Fight it and stab it, and die fighting. It's a
lost hope--but fight!
GERALD. Don't say these things here, mother.
MRS. BARLOW. Yes, I will--I will. I'll say them before you, and the
child Winifred--she knows. And before Oliver and the young woman--
they know, too.
MR. BARLOW. You see, dear, you can never understand that, although I
am weak and wasted, although I may be crossed out from the world like
a mistake, I still have peace in my soul, dear, the peach that passeth
all understanding.
MRS. BARLOW. And what right have you to it? All very well for you
to take peace with you into the other world. What do you leave for
your sons to inherit?
MR. BARLOW. The peace of God, Henrietta, if there is no peace among
men.
MRS. BARLOW. Then why did you have children? Why weren't you
celibate? They have to live among men. If they have no place among
men, why have you put them there? If the peace of God is no more
than the peace of death, why are your sons born of you? How can you
have peace with God, if you leave no peace for your sons--no peace,
no pride, no place on earth?
GERALD.
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