and pictures and plays and music and all the decent
things. I don't believe that if they had the chance they would all read
Meredith and admire Whistler and go to see Shaw's plays and want to
listen to Wagner ... that's not the point, and anyhow the middle and the
upper classes are not all marvellously cultured. My point is that their
lives are such that they don't even know of Meredith and Whistler and
Shaw and Wagner. They don't even know of the second-rate people or the
third rate. Magnolia, for instance ... I suppose she reads novelettes,
and when she grows out of novelettes, she won't read anything. And she
can't afford to go to a West End theatre.... When I think of these
people, millions of 'em, I think of them as people like Magnolia,
completely shut out of things like that, not even aware of them...."

They spent the remainder of the evening in argument, their talk ranging
over the wide field of human activity. They established a system of
continual criticism of existing institutions. "Challenge everything,"
said Gilbert; "make it justify its existence." They tried to discover
the truth about things, to shed their prejudices and to see the facts of
life exactly as they were. "The great thing is to get rid of Slop!" said
Roger. "We've got to convince the judge as well as move the jury. It
isn't enough to make the jury feel sloppy ... any ass can do that.
You've got to convince the old chap on the bench or you won't get a
verdict. That's my belief, and I believe, too, that the jury is more
likely to listen to reason than people imagine!"

They did not finish their argument that evening nor on any particular
evening. They were spread over a long period, and were part of the
process of clearing their minds of cobwebs.

Gilbert had dedicated his life to the renascence of the drama and had
written a couple of plays which, he admitted to his friends, had not got
the right stuff in them. "I don't know enough yet," he said once to
Henry, "but I'm learning...." His dramatic criticism was very pointed,
and he speedily acquired a reputation among people who are interested in
the theatre, as an acute but harsh critic, and already attempts had been
made by theatrical managers either to bribe him or get him dismissed
from his paper. The bribing process was quite delicately operated. One
manager wrote to him, charmingly plaintive about his criticism, and
invited him to put himself in the manager's place. "I assure you," he
w