The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Unsocial Socialist, by George Bernard Shaw

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Title: An Unsocial Socialist

Author: George Bernard Shaw

Release Date: February 21, 2006 [EBook #1654]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Dianne Bean and David Widger

AN UNSOCIAL SOCIALIST

by George Bernard Shaw

CHAPTER I

In the dusk of an October evening, a sensible looking woman of forty
came out through an oaken door to a broad landing on the first floor of
an old English country-house. A braid of her hair had fallen forward as
if she had been stooping over book or pen; and she stood for a moment
to smooth it, and to gaze contemplatively--not in the least
sentimentally--through the tall, narrow window. The sun was setting, but
its glories were at the other side of the house; for this window
looked eastward, where the landscape of sheepwalks and pasture land was
sobering at the approach of darkness.

The lady, like one to whom silence and quiet were luxuries, lingered
on the landing for some time. Then she turned towards another door, on
which was inscribed, in white letters, Class Room No. 6. Arrested by a
whispering above, she paused in the doorway, and looked up the stairs
along a broad smooth handrail that swept round in an unbroken curve at
each landing, forming an inclined plane from the top to the bottom of
the house.

A young voice, apparently mimicking someone, now came from above,
saying,

"We will take the Etudes de la Velocite next, if you please, ladies."

Immediately a girl in a holland dress shot down through space; whirled
round the curve with a fearless centrifugal toss of her ankle; and
vanished into the darkness beneath. She was followed by a stately girl
in green, intently holding her breath as she flew; and also by a large
young woman in black, with her lower lip grasped between her teeth, and
her fine brown eyes protruding with excitement. Her passage created a
miniature tempest which disarranged anew the hair of the lady on the
landing, who waited in breathless alarm until two light shocks and a
thump announced that the aerial v