This scene of the servants in the drawing-room is a
little masterpiece in the presentation of Low Life above
Stairs. Dominating the scene is the austere figure of
the butler, knowing his place, remembering, not without
pride, that he is the son of a butler and a lady's-maid,
" perhaps the happiest of all combinations."



200 DRAMA AND LIFE

Act 11. shows us what the " return to nature " really
is. The Earl and his family, yachting in the South
Seas, have been wrecked on a desert island ; and, as
by a turn of the kaleidoscope, all the relative positions
of the parties are changed. Crichton proves to be a
born " handy man," full of invention, able to fashion
needles out of hairpins, and to light fires by catching
the sun's rays on a watch-glass. He also proves born
to command. The rest of the party struggle feebly
against his authority, but in vain. They even give him
" notice," and retire to another part of the island. But
he presides over the cooking-pot, and he knows that
hunger will bring them back. The scene wherein they
crawl humbly and silently back and gather in the
darkness round the cooking-pot, over which Crichton is
thoughtfully smoking his philosophic pipe, is the " return
to nature" in dumb show. And the point is that
Crichton has assumed his ascendency not by willing it,
not by domineering, but by sheer force of circumstance.
