What Happens

Three weeks after the events in Act 1, Charles Winsor and General Canynge are playing cards in a London club. Lord St. Erth, one of the other players, mentions that Ferdinand De Levis has been blackballed and will be compelled to leave the club. Soon after this, Major Colford, a friend of Dancy’s, enters the card room to tell them that De Levis, who is in the next room, has just accused Dancy of stealing his money. De Levis comes in and confronts Dancy’s friends angrily. When Lord St. Erth calls him “a venomous young man,” he responds by saying: “I have a memory, and a sting too.” He says that since he knows he is doomed to social oblivion, he will take Dancy down with him.

When Dancy enters, De Levis accuses him of the theft to his face. Dancy calls him a “damned Jew” and challenges him to a duel, but De Levis refuses and tells Dancy to sue him for defamation, adding: “You called me a damned Jew. My race was old when you were all savages. I am proud to be a Jew.”

After he has left, the other gentlemen ask Dancy whether he intends to sue De Levis, and he says that he will think it over since litigation is expensive. Colford is certain that Dancy is innocent, but the others express doubt, though they believe it will reflect poorly on the club if Dancy fails to take legal action against De Levis. Winsor tells Colford that the general noticed a wet patch on Dancy’s sleeve soon after the money went missing, suggesting that he had been out in the rain.

The next morning, in the Dancys’ apartment, Mabel Dancy is talking to Margaret Orme. Margaret tells Mabel about De Levis’s accusation, which her husband has not mentioned, but which was the main topic of conversation at the Winsors’ house during dinner the night before. Lady Adela Winsor comes in while Mabel is trying to contact Ronald on the telephone and talks to Margaret about the accusation and whether they will have to give evidence in court. Mabel is unable to discover where Ronald is, but he soon comes in, and the two visitors quickly leave.

Dancy asks Mabel to come with him to Nairobi, but she says that this would look like running away, and they must stay and fight. They are just about to consult a solicitor when De Levis enters. Both Mabel and Dancy demand that he withdraw the accusation, and Mabel appeals to his honor as a gentleman. However, De Levis replies:

I am not a gentleman, I am only a – damned Jew. Yesterday I might possibly have withdrawn to spare you. But when my race is insulted I have nothing to say to your husband…

After he leaves, Mabel asks if Dancy took the money, saying that she would rather know if he did. She then apologizes, asking: “If I can’t believe in you, who can?”

Why It Matters

The themes of race and class loyalty become even more explicit in this Act, as De Levis decides that he does not care about being accepted as a gentleman by upper-class society and embraces his Jewish heritage. In conflict with loyalty is the virtue of honesty, which Galsworthy explores by focusing on different types of dishonesty: theft, hypocrisy, and refusal to face the truth.

Margaret Orme forthrightly declares that she does not care if Dancy is innocent or guilty. He is her third cousin, and they must stick together, as she says the Jews do. She also points out that loyalties are very similar to prejudices. These comments bring into question the ideal of the English gentleman, whose honor and honesty are supposed to be above reproach and threaten the identity not only of the Dancys but of all their upper-class friends, who base their claim to superiority on their embodiment of this ideal.