always sorry
for it afterwards.
ENID. [With a smile.] Are you ever violent, Frost?
FROST. Yes, M'm; oh! sometimes very violent.
ENID. I've never seen you.
FROST. [Impersonally.] No, M'm; that is so.
[ENID fidgets towards the back of the door.]
[With feeling.] Bein' with Mr. Anthony, as you know, M'm, ever since
I was fifteen, it worries me to see him crossed like this at his age.
I've taken the liberty to speak to Mr. Wanklin [dropping his voice]--
seems to be the most sensible of the gentlemen--but 'e said to me:
"That's all very well, Frost, but this strike's a very serious
thing," 'e said. "Serious for all parties, no doubt," I said, "but
yumour 'im, sir," I said, "yumour 'im. It's like this, if a man
comes to a stone wall, 'e does n't drive 'is 'ead against it, 'e gets
over it." "Yes," 'e said, "you'd better tell your master that."
[FROST looks at his nails.] That's where it is, M'm. I said to Mr.
Anthony this morning: "Is it worth it, sir?" "Damn it," he said to
me, "Frost! Mind your own business, or take a month's notice!" Beg
pardon, M'm, for using such a word.
ENID. [Moving to the double-doors, and listening.] Do you know that
man Roberts, Frost?
FROST. Yes, M'm; that's to say, not to speak to. But to look at 'im
you can tell what he's like.
ENID. [Stopping.] Yes?
FROST. He's not one of these 'ere ordinary 'armless Socialists.
'E's violent; got a fire inside 'im. What I call "personal." A man
may 'ave what opinions 'e likes, so long as 'e 's not personal; when
'e 's that 'e 's not safe.
ENID. I think that's what my father feels about Roberts.
FROST. No doubt, M'm, Mr. Anthony has a feeling against him.
[ENID glances at him sharply, but finding him in perfect
earnest, stands biting her lips, and looking at the
double-doors.]
It 's, a regular right down struggle between the two. I've no
patience with this Roberts, from what I 'ear he's just an ordinary
workin' man like the rest of 'em. If he did invent a thing he's no
worse off than 'undreds of others. My brother invented a new kind o'
dumb-waiter--nobody gave him anything for it, an' there it is, bein'
used all over the place.
[ENID moves closer to the double-doors.]
There's a kind o' man that never forgives the world, because 'e
wasn't born a gentleman. What I say is--no man that's a gentleman
looks down on another because 'e 'appens to be a class or two above
'im, no
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