Page:Men of Letters, Scott, 1916.djvu/174

148 148 MR. GRANVILLE BARKER AND AN ALIBI slant out of the strict logic of the line, with the effect of a deprecating shrug. He has to write sentences — but he refuses to pronounce them ; which is exactly what Shaw can't help doing. Mr. Shaw's stage-direc- tions are commands ; Mr. Barker's, indications — he has a trick of using a terminal " perhaps." " There are many hooks in the room, hardly any pictures, a statuette, perhaps." " You can discern a bookcase filled with heavy volumes — law reports, perhaps" "^ certain liking for metaphysical turns of speech show an Eastern origin, perhaps,** It is an odd constructional trick, and it seems to me beautifully characteristic. Even in the faces of his characters it is repeatedly reflected, in expressions of half-humorous dubiety. Philip Madras is constantly raising his eyebrows quizzically, whimsi- cally; even old Voysey's eyebrows have an elvish twist. Whimsical eyebrows, in short, and a tone of charming deprecation — we really needn't search for other traits. Such clues may seem slight, but indeed they are cardinal — quite enough to authorize us to deny as preposterous the suggestion that Barker is simply Shaw without the bite, or that these Plays are Plays for Puritans, Vol. II. Mr. Shaw wears a black cap ; Mr. Barker a white. He watches us ordinary mortals with a kind of wistful wonder, like a wandering pierrot searching for the truth. Mr. Shaw, quite convinced he has the truth in his pocket, flings it in our faces with contempt. The result being that the former is the master of an art, and the latter a — G.B.Sc. And it is all summed up sensibly in the way one of them ends his utterances with an uncom- promising bang — the other with a speculative " perhaps." IV But there is a spark of truth in all mistakes, even the smokiest; and there is a gleam of justice here.