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184 George Bernard Shaw
she d cut off her hands sooner than touch anything that
was not what it ought to be. ... But you see you can t
mention such things in society. Once let out the word
hotel and everybody says you keep a public-house. You
wouldn t like people to say that of your mother, would
you? That s why we re so reserved about it. ... Don t
turn up your nose at business, Miss Vivie: where would
your Newnhams and Girtons be without it? . . . You
wouldn t refuse the acquaintance of my mother s cousin,
the Duke of Belgravia, because some of the rents he gets
are earned in queer ways. You wouldn t cut the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, I suppose, because the Ecclesiasti
cal Commissioners have a few publicans and sinners
among their tenants? Do you remember your Crofts
scholarship at Newnham? Well, that was founded by
my brother the M.P. He gets his 22 per cent, out of a
factory with 600 girls in it, and not one of them getting
wages enough to live on. How d ye suppose most of
them manage? Ask your mother. And do you expect
me to turn my back on 35 per cent, when all the rest are
pocketing what they can, like sensible men? No such
fool! If you re going to pick and choose your acquaint
ances on moral principles, you d better clear out of this
country, unless you want to cut yourself out of all decent
society. . . . The world isn t such a bad place as the
croakers make out. So long as you don t fly openly in
the face of society, society doesn t ask any inconvenient
questions; and it makes precious short work of the cads
who do. There are no secrets better kept than the
secrets that everybody guesses. In the society I can in
troduce you to, no lady or gentleman would so far forget
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