JOURNALIST. Excellent, Sir; excellent!
BUILDER. Excellent? It's damnable. Here am I—a man who's always tried to do his duty in private life and public—brought up before the Bench— my God! because I was doing that duty; with a little too much zeal, perhaps—I'm not an angel!
JOURNALIST. No! No! of course.
BUILDER. A proper Englishman never is. But there are no proper
Englishmen nowadays.
He crosses the room in his fervour.
RALPH. [Suddenly] As I look at faces—
BUILDER. [Absorbed] What! I told this young man I wasn't an angel.
JOURNALIST. [Drawing him on] Yes, Sir; I quite understand.
BUILDER. If the law thinks it can force me to be one of your weak-kneed sentimentalists who let everybody do what they like—
RALPH. There are a good many who stand on their rights left, John.