s from one to the other, comprehendingly.)

GEORGE. I've asked her to marry me, Dr. Jonathan.

DR. JONATHAN. And what are your objections, Minnie?

MINNIE. You know why I can't, Dr. Jonathan. What kind of a wife would I
make for him, with his family and friends. I'd do anything for him but
that! He wouldn't be happy.

DR. JONATHAN. And what's your answer, George?

GEORGE. I don't want her for my family and friends,--I want her for
myself. This isn't a snap judgment--I've had time to think it over.

MINNIE. I didn't mean to be here when you got home. I know I'm not fit
to be your wife I haven't had any education.

GEORGE. Neither have I. We start level there. I've lived among people
of culture, and I've found out that culture chiefly consists of fixed
ideas, and obstruction to progress, of hating the President,--of knowing
the right people and eating fish with a fork.

MINNIE (smiling, though in tears). Well, I never ate fish with a knife,
anyway.

GEORGE. I spent my valuable youth learning Greek and Latin, and I can't
speak or read either of them. I know that Horace wrote odes, and Cicero
made orations, but I can't quote them. All I remember about biology is
that the fittest are supposed to survive, and in this war I've seen the
fittest killed off like flies. You've had several years of useful work
in the Pindar Shops and the Wire Works, to say nothing of a course in
biological chemistry, psychology and sociology under Dr. Jonathan. I'll
leave it to him whether you don't know more about life than I do--about
the life and problems of the great mass of people in this country. And
now that the strike's over--

MINNIE. The strike's over!

GEORGE. Yes. I've chosen my life. It isn't going to be divided between a
Wall Street office and Newport and Palm Beach. A girl out of a finishing
school wouldn't be of any use to me. I'm going to stay right here in
Foxon Falls, Minnie, I've got a real job on my hands, and I need a real
woman with special knowledge to help me. I don't mean to say we won't
have vacations, and we'll sit down and get our education together. Dr.
Jonathan will be the schoolmaster.

MINNIE. It's a dream, George.

GEORGE. Well, Minnie, if it's a dream worth dying for it's a dream worth
living for. Your brother Bert died for it.

CURTAIN

PG EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Economic freedom, without which political freedom is a farce
Flaming flag of a false martyrdom