No, my boy. (Exit GERALD.) We have had our share of sorrow and of conflict, Miss Wrath, as you may have gathered. (ANABEL: Yes--a little.) The mines were opened when my father was a boy--the first--and I was born late, when he was nearly fifty. So that all my life has been involved with coal and colliers. As a young man, I was gay and thoughtless. But I married young, and we lost our first child through a terrible accident. Two children we have lost through sudden and violent death. (WINIFRED goes out unnoticed.) It made me reflect. And when I came to reflect, Anabel, I could not justify my position in life. If I believed in the teachings of the New Testament--which I did, and do--how could I keep two or three thousand men employed and underground in the mines, at a wage, let us say, of two pounds a week, whilst I lived in this comfortable house, and took something like two thousand pounds a year--let us name any figure--- (ANABEL: Yes, of course. But is it money that really matters, Mr. Barlow?) My dear, if you are a working man, it matters. When I went into the homes of my poor fellows, when they were ill or had had accidents--then I knew it mattered. I knew that the great disparity was wrong--even as we are taught that it is wrong.

Mrs Barlow Monologue from Touch and Go: A Play in Three Acts

Rehearse Mrs Barlow's monologue