WEDGECROFT. [_His thankfulness checked a little._] No ... not exactly. TREBELL _walks away from him._ TREBELL. It's a pity the truth isn't to be told, I think. I suppose the verdict will be murder. WEDGECROFT. They won't catch the man. TREBELL. You don't mean ... me. WEDGECROFT. No, no ... my dear fellow. TREBELL. You might, you know. But nobody seems to see this thing as I see it. If I were on that jury I'd say murder too and accuse ... so many circumstances, Gilbert, that we should go home ... and look in the cupboards. What a lumber of opinions we inherit and keep! WEDGECROFT. [_Humouring him._] Ought we to burn the house down? TREBELL. Rules and regulations for the preservation of rubbish are the laws of England ... and I was adding to their number. WEDGECROFT. And so you shall ... to the applause of a grateful country. TREBELL. [_Studying his friend's kindly encouraging face._] Gilbert, it is not so much that you're an incorrigible optimist ... but why do you subdue your mind to flatter people into cheerfulness? WEDGECROFT. I'm a doctor, my friend. TREBELL. You're a part of our tendency to keep things alive by hook or by crook ... not a spark but must be carefully blown upon. The world's old and tired; it dreads extinction. I think I disapprove ... I think I've more faith. WEDGECROFT. [_Scolding him._] Nonsense ... you've the instinct to preserve your life as everyone else has ... and I'm here to show you how. TREBELL. [_Beyond the reach of his kindness._] I assure you that these two days while you've been fussing around O'Connell--bless your kind heart--I've been waiting events, indifferent enough to understand his indifference. WEDGECROFT. Not indifferent. TREBELL. Lifeless enough already, then. [_Suddenly a thought strikes him._] D'you think it was Horsham and his little committee persuaded O'Connell? WEDGECROFT. On the contrary. TREBELL. So you need not have let them into the secret? WEDGECROFT. No. TREBELL. Think of that. _He almost laughs; but_ WEDGECROFT _goes on quite innocently._ WEDGECROFT. Yes ... I'm sorry. TREBELL. Upsetting their moral digestion for nothing. WEDGECROFT. But when O'Connell wouldn't listen to us we had to rope in the important people. TREBELL. With their united wisdom. [_Then he breaks away again into great bitterness._] No ... what do they make of this woman's death? I saw them in that room, Gilbert, like men seen through the wrong end of a telescope. D'you think if the little affair with Nature ... her offence and mine against the conveniences of civilization ... had ended in my death too ... then they'd have stopped to wonder at the misuse and waste of the only force there is in the world ... come to think of it, there is no other ... than this desire for expression ... in words ... or through children. Would they have thought of that and stopped whispering about the scandal? _Through this_ WEDGECROFT _has watched him very gravely._