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Read Ebook: Magic A Fantastic Comedy by Chesterton G K Gilbert Keith
Font size: Background color: Text color: Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev PageEbook has 393 lines and 12712 words, and 8 pagesDOCTOR. I consider a family superstition is better for the health than a family quarrel. Well, it must be nice to be young and still see all those stars and sunsets. We old buffers won't be too strict with you if your view of things sometimes gets a bit--mixed up, shall we say? If the stars get loose about the grass by mistake; or if, once or twice, the sunset gets into the east. We should only say, "Dream as much as you like. Dream for all mankind. Dream for us who can dream no longer. But do not quite forget the difference." PATRICIA. What difference? DOCTOR. The difference between the things that are beautiful and the things that are there. That red lamp over my door isn't beautiful; but it's there. You might even come to be glad it is there, when the stars of gold and silver have faded. I am an old man now, but some men are still glad to find my red star. I do not say they are the wise men. PATRICIA. Yes, I know you are good to everybody. But don't you think there may be floating and spiritual stars which will last longer than the red lamps? SMITH. Yes. But they are fixed stars. DOCTOR. The red lamp will last my time. DUKE. Capital! Capital! Why, it's like Tennyson. I remember when I was an undergrad.... It's only somebody standing in front of it. Say, Duke, there's somebody standing in the garden. PATRICIA. I told you he walked about the garden. MORRIS. If it's that fortune-teller of yours.... Somebody in the garden! Really, this Land Campaign.... Now, see here, wizard, we've got you. And we know you're a fraud. SMITH. Pardon me, I do not fancy that we know that. For myself I must confess to something of the Doctor's agnosticism. MORRIS. I didn't know you parsons stuck up for any fables but your own. SMITH. I stick up for the thing every man has a right to. Perhaps the only thing that every man has a right to. MORRIS. And what is that? SMITH. The benefit of the doubt. Even your master, the petroleum millionaire, has a right to that. And I think he needs it more. MORRIS. I don't think there's much doubt about the question, Minister. I've met this sort of fellow often enough--the sort of fellow who wheedles money out of girls by telling them he can make stones disappear. DOCTOR. Do you say you can make stones disappear? STRANGER. Yes. I can make stones disappear. MORRIS. I reckon you're the kind of tough who knows how to make a watch and chain disappear. STRANGER. Yes; I know how to make a watch and chain disappear. MORRIS. And I should think you were pretty good at disappearing yourself. STRANGER. I have done such a thing. MORRIS. Will you disappear now? STRANGER. No, I think I'll appear instead. Good-evening, your Grace. I'm afraid I'm rather too early for the performance. But this gentleman seemed rather impatient for it to begin. DUKE. Oh, good-evening. Why, really--are you the...? STRANGER. Yes. I am the Conjurer. I am very sorry I am not a wizard. PATRICIA. I wish you were a thief instead. STRANGER. Have I committed a worse crime than thieving? PATRICIA. You have committed the cruellest crime, I think, that there is. STRANGER. And what is the cruellest crime? PATRICIA. Stealing a child's toy. STRANGER. And what have I stolen? PATRICIA. A fairy tale. CURTAIN ACT II HASTINGS. There are only a few small matters. Here are the programmes of the entertainment your Grace wanted. Mr. Carleon wishes to see them very much. DUKE. Thanks, thanks. HASTINGS. Shall I carry them for your Grace? DUKE. No, no; I shan't forget, I shan't forget. Why, you've no idea how businesslike I am. We have to be, you know. I know you're a bit of a Socialist; but I assure you there's a good deal to do--stake in the country, and all that. Look at remembering faces now! The King never forgets faces. I never forget faces. Why, the Professor here who performs before the King --you see it on the caravans, you know--performs before the King almost every night, I suppose.... CONJURER. I sometimes let his Majesty have an evening off. And turn my attention, of course, to the very highest nobility. But naturally I have performed before every sovereign potentate, white and black. There never was a conjurer who hadn't. DUKE. That's right, that's right! And you'll say with me that the great business for a King is remembering people? CONJURER. I should say it was remembering which people to remember. DUKE. Well, well, now.... Being really businesslike.... HASTINGS. Shall I take the programmes for your Grace? DUKE. No, no, I shan't forget. Is there anything else? HASTINGS. I have to go down the village about the wire to Stratford. The only other thing at all urgent is the Militant Vegetarians. DUKE. Ah! The Militant Vegetarians! You've heard of them, I'm sure. Won't obey the law so long as the Government serves out meat. CONJURER. Let them be comforted. There are a good many people who don't get much meat. Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page |
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