ly] What right have you to treat a man like
that? an honest respectable husband? as if he were dirt under your feet?

KNOX. Let her alone, Gilbey. [Gilbey sits down, but mutinously].

MRS KNOX. Well, you gave me all you could, Jo; and if it wasnt what I
wanted, that wasnt your fault. But I'd rather have you as you were than
since you took to whisky and soda.

KNOX. I dont want any whisky and soda. I'll take the pledge if you like.

MRS KNOX. No: you shall have your beer because you like it. The whisky
was only brag. And if you and me are to remain friends, Mr Gilbey, youll
get up to-morrow morning at seven.

GILBEY. [defiantly] Damme if I will! There!

MRS KNOX. [with gentle pity] How do you know, Mr Gilbey, what youll do
to-morrow morning?

GILBEY. Why shouldnt I know? Are we children not to be let do what we
like, and our own sons and daughters kicking their heels all over the
place? [To Knox] I was never one to interfere between man and wife,
Knox; but if Maria started ordering me about like that--

MRS GILBEY. Now dont be naughty, Rob. You know you mustnt set yourself
up against religion?

GILBEY. Whos setting himself up against religion?

MRS KNOX. It doesnt matter whether you set yourself up against it or
not, Mr. Gilbey. If it sets itself up against you, youll have to go the
appointed way: it's no use quarrelling about it with me that am as great
a sinner as yourself.

GILBEY. Oh, indeed! And who told you I was a sinner?

MRS GILBEY. Now, Rob, you know we are all sinners. What else is
religion?

GILBEY. I say nothing against religion. I suppose were all sinners, in
a manner of speaking; but I dont like to have it thrown at me as if I'd
really done anything.

MRS GILBEY. Mrs Knox is speaking for your good, Rob.

GILBEY. Well, I dont like to be spoken to for my good. Would anybody
like it?

MRS KNOX. Dont take offence where none is meant, Mr Gilbey. Talk about
something else. No good ever comes of arguing about such things among
the like of us.

KNOX. The like of us! Are you throwing it in our teeth that your people
were in the wholesale and thought Knox and Gilbey wasnt good enough for
you?

MRS KNOX. No, Jo: you know I'm not. What better were my people than
yours, for all their pride? But Ive noticed it all my life: we're
ignorant. We dont really know whats right and whats wrong. We're all
right as long as things go on the way they always did. We bring our
children up just as we were broug