Shelmerdene: Please don’t generalise! It is so easy to insult a woman by saying women. How did he fail? Oh, he would not understand that marriage is comradeship, not domination. It is very difficult for some men to understand that, and it is very difficult for some women to be dominated.
The Voice: It is very difficult for some women to be loyal!
Shelmerdene: Again! Well, perhaps. Loyalty, like a sense of humour, is a quality universally praised because every one thinks he or she has it. And when you say that a woman is lacking in loyalty you really mean that she is not so celibate as you might wish. When you say that it is difficult for some women to be loyal, what you really mean is that it is difficult for some women to be celibate. You are quite right, it is. And why, in God’s name, should they be? Must all Englishwomen be made of stone because most Englishmen are educated only from the throat downwards! Now, tell me why did you ring me up—was it to discuss, “loyalty”?
The Voice: Your voice hurts rather, Shelmerdene. I have just returned to England.
Shelmerdene: (Very softly) Yes?
The Voice: I was very ill, in Ceylon. And then one night, when I was better, I was wandering about the veranda of my friend’s station, and I happened to hear the whirr of the P. and O. from Colombo to England. It was very distant, four miles away at least, but the night was very, very still, and I not only heard the whirr but above it a twitter—a tinkling something—a very faint, long-drawn silly something, which could only be the music of the liner’s orchestra——
Shelmerdene: Yes? I am listening.
The Voice: That is what I heard, Shelmerdene, and it somehow made me see things very far away. I, who had been abroad so long, saw England. Funny, wasn’t it? And I saw you—I saw you dancing, Shelmerdene! I saw you dancing as I last saw you, dancing very gaily and subtly through the maze of the Avalon’s ballroom, and smiling up into your partner’s face. How well you danced, Shelmerdene! Do you still dance so well?
Shelmerdene: Dancing changes.
The Voice: Of course. And men and women die.