The Crowd.
[Outside.] Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!
Bernick.
Silence, gentlemen. I have no right to this homage; for what I have now determined was not my original intention. My intention was to retain the whole myself; and I am still of opinion that the property can be most profitably worked if it remains in the control of one man. But it is for the shareholders to choose. If they wish it, I am willing to manage it for them to the best of my ability.
Voices.
Yes, yes, yes!
Bernick.
But, first, my fellow citizens must know me to the core. Then let every one look into his own heart, and let us realise the prediction that from this evening we begin a new era. The old, with its tinsel, its hypocrisy and hollowness, its sham propriety, and its despicable cowardice, shall lie behind us like a museum, open for instruction; and to this museum we will present—will we not, gentlemen?—the coffee service, and the goblet, and the album, and the family devotions on vellum and luxuriously bound.
Rummel.
Yes, of course.