standing for liberty and the rights of the individual, as I learnt to do
from my master Herbert Spencer. Am I howled at? No: I'm indulged as an
old fogey. I'm out of everything, because I've refused to bow the knee
to Socialism.

MRS. CLANDON (shocked). Socialism.

McCOMAS. Yes, Socialism. That's what Miss Gloria will be up to her
ears in before the end of the month if you let her loose here.

MRS. CLANDON (emphatically). But I can prove to her that Socialism
is a fallacy.

McCOMAS (touchingly). It is by proving that, Mrs. Clandon, that I
have lost all my young disciples. Be careful what you do: let her go
her own way. (With some bitterness.) We're old-fashioned: the world
thinks it has left us behind. There is only one place in all England
where your opinions would still pass as advanced.

MRS. CLANDON (scornfully unconvinced). The Church, perhaps?

McCOMAS. No, the theatre. And now to business! Why have you made
me come down here?

MRS. CLANDON. Well, partly because I wanted to see you---

McCOMAS (with good-humored irony). Thanks.

MRS. CLANDON. ---and partly because I want you to explain everything
to the children. They know nothing; and now that we have come back to