ANABEL (with a loud, piercing cry, suddenly starting up). Ah, no! Ah, no! Ah-h-h-h no-o-o-o! Ah-h-h-h no-o-o-o! Ah-h-h-h no-o-o-o! No-o-o-o! No-o-o-o! No-o! No-o-o!--Ah-h-h-h!--it's enough, it's enough, it's enough--he's a man as you are. He's a man as you are. He's a man as you are. (Weeps--a breath of silence.) OLIVER. Let us stop now--let us stop now. Let me stand up. (Silence.) I want to stand up. (A muffled noise.) VOICE. Let him get up. (OLIVER rises.) OLIVER. Be quiet. Be quiet.--Now--choose! Choose! Choose! Choose what you will do! Only choose! Choose!--it will be irrevocable. (A moment's pause.) Thank God we haven't gone too far.--Gerald, get up. (Men still hold him down.) JOB ARTHUR. Isn't he to answer us? Isn't he going to answer us? OLIVER. Yes, he shall answer you. He shall answer you. But let him stand up. No more of this. Let him stand up. He must stand up. (Men still hold GERALD down.) OLIVER takes hold of their hands and removes them.) Let go--let go now. Yes, let go--yes--I ask you to let go. (Slowly, sullenly, the men let go. GERALD is free, but he does not move.) There--get up, Gerald! Get up! You aren't hurt, are you? You must get up--it's no use. We're doing our best--you must do yours. When things are like this, we have to put up with what we get. (GERALD rises slowly and faces the mob. They roar dully.) You ask why the clerks didn't get this increase? Wait! Wait! Do you still wish for any answer, Mr. Freer? JOB ARTHUR. Yes, that's what we've been waiting for. OLIVER. Then answer, Gerald. GERALD. They've trodden on my face. OLIVER. No matter. Job Arthur will easily answer that you've trodden on their souls. Don't start an altercation. (The crowd is beginning to roar.) GERALD. You want to know why the clerks didn't get their rise?--Because you interfered and attempted to bully about it, do you see. That's why. VOICES. You want bullying.--You'll get bullying, you will. OLIVER. Can't you see it's no good, either side? It's no mortal use. We might as well all die to-morrow, or to-day, or this minute, as go on bullying one another, one side bullying the other side, and the other side bullying back. We'd BETTER all die. WILLIE. And a great deal better. I'm damned if I'll take sides with anybody against anything, after this. If I'm to die, I'll die by myself. As for living, it seems impossible. JOB ARTHUR. Have the men nothing to be said for their side? OLIVER. They have a great deal--but not EVERYTHING, you see. JOB ARTHUR. Haven't they been wronged? And AREN'T they wronged? OLIVER. They have--and they are. But haven't they been wrong themselves, too?--and aren't they wrong now? JOB ARTHUR. How? OLIVER. What about this affair? Do you call it right? JOB ARTHUR. Haven't we been driven to it? OLIVER. Partly. And haven't you driven the masters to it, as well? JOB ARTHUR. I don't see that.