The shock of contrast between my old and my new self
stopped me short in the road. In a flash I saw the lying materialism on
which the world is based, the curse of dollar worship that keeps
opportunity away from the young, at the same time it keeps the old in a
prison of loneliness and suspicion. If we worshipped life instead of metal
disks, we would see that the young are not really the heirs of the old,
but the old are heirs of the young. Then and there I vowed to keep myself
clear of the whole wretched tangle, even if I had to carry laundry all my
life, so that if any one ever tried to fetter me I could fling his words
back in his face! (_Uncle Richard's nerves are all on edge. A terrific
storm of overbearing temper visibly gathers during this speech, and the
Colonel's long habit of successful domination seems about to assert itself
in an explosion. But at the last moment another power, deeper than habit,
older than character, represses his wrath, and when Uncle Richard speaks
again it is with an earnest gentleness almost plaintive._)
UNCLE RICHARD
Richard, for heaven's sake let us stop this quarreling! Let us forget what
has been said and done on both sides and begin anew.
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