‘Ah, no, Mr Flory, alas! That mighty master-mind, your inspired Bernard Shaw hass called him. It iss a pleasure to come. But, my friend, what you do not see iss that your civilization at its very worst iss for us an advance. Gramophones, billycock hats, the News of the World – all iss better than the horrible sloth of the Oriental. I see the British, even the least inspired of them, ass – ass –’ the doctor searched for a phrase, and found one that probably came from Stevenson – ‘ass torchbearers upon the path of progress.’
‘I don’t. I see them as a kind of up-to-date, hygienic, self-satisfied louse. Creeping round the world building prisons. They build a prison and call it progress,’ he added rather regretfully – for the doctor would not recognize the allusion.
‘My friend, positively you
