LADY UTTERWORD. The point for a young woman of your age is a
baby.
HECTOR. Yes, but, damn it, I have the same feeling; and I can't
have a baby.
LADY UTTERWORD. By deputy, Hector.
HECTOR. But I have children. All that is over and done with for
me: and yet I too feel that this can't last. We sit here talking,
and leave everything to Mangan and to chance and to the devil.
Think of the powers of destruction that Mangan and his mutual
admiration gang wield! It's madness: it's like giving a torpedo
to a badly brought up child to play at earthquakes with.
MAZZINI. I know. I used often to think about that when I was
young.
HECTOR. Think! What's the good of thinking about it? Why didn't
you do something?
MAZZINI. But I did. I joined societies and made speeches and
wrote pamphlets. That was all I could do. But, you know, though
the people in the societies thought they knew more than Mangan,
most of them wouldn't have joined if they had known as much. You
see they had never had any money to handle or any men to manage.
Every year I expected a revolution, or some frightful smash-up:
it seemed impossible that we could blunder and muddle on any
longer. But nothing happened, except, of course, the usual
poverty and crime and drink that we are used to.
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