Heartbreak House · Act II (2/2) (2/6)

| Mazzini | Looking forlornly at the body. What is your objection to poor Mangan, Mrs. Hushabye? He looks all right to me. But then I am so accustomed to him. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Have you no heart? Have you no sense? Look at the brute! Think of poor weak innocent Ellie in the clutches of this slavedriver, who spends his life making thousands of rough violent workmen bend to his will and sweat for him: a man accustomed to have great masses of iron beaten into shape for him by steam-hammers! to fight with women and girls over a halfpenny an hour ruthlessly! a captain of industry, I think you call him, don’t you? Are you going to fling your delicate, sweet, helpless child into such a beast’s claws just because he will keep her in an expensive house and make her wear diamonds to show how rich he is? | | Mazzini | Staring at her in wide-eyed amazement. Bless you, dear Mrs. Hushabye, what romantic ideas of business you have! Poor dear Mangan isn’t a bit like that. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Scornfully. Poor dear Mangan indeed! | | Mazzini | But he doesn’t know anything about machinery. He never goes near the men: he couldn’t manage them: he is afraid of them. I never can get him to take the least interest in the works: he hardly knows more about them than you do. People are cruelly unjust to Mangan: they think he is all rugged strength just because his manners are bad. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Do you mean to tell me he isn’t strong enough to crush poor little Ellie? | | Mazzini | Of course it’s very hard to say how any marriage will turn out; but speaking for myself, I should say that he won’t have a dog’s chance against Ellie. You know, Ellie has remarkable strength of character. I think it is because I taught her to like Shakespeare when she was very young. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Contemptuously. Shakespeare! The next thing you will tell me is that you could have made a great deal more money than Mangan. She retires to the sofa, and sits down at the port end of it in the worst of humors. | | Mazzini | Following her and taking the other end. No: I’m no good at making money. I don’t care enough for it, somehow. I’m not ambitious! that must be it. Mangan is wonderful about money: he thinks of nothing else. He is so dreadfully afraid of being poor. I am always thinking of other things: even at the works I think of the things we are doing and not of what they cost. And the worst of it is, poor Mangan doesn’t know what to do with his money when he gets it. He is such a baby that he doesn’t know even what to eat and drink: he has ruined his liver eating and drinking the wrong things; and now he can hardly eat at all. Ellie will diet him splendidly. You will be surprised when you come to know him better: he is really the most helpless of mortals. You get quite a protective feeling towards him. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Then who manages his business, pray? | | Mazzini | I do. And of course other people like me. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Footling people, you mean. | | Mazzini | I suppose you’d think us so. | | Mrs. Hushabye | And pray why don’t you do without him if you’re all so much cleverer? | | Mazzini | Oh, we couldn’t: we should ruin the business in a year. I’ve tried; and I know. We should spend too much on everything. We should improve the quality of the goods and make them too dear. We should be sentimental about the hard cases among the work people. But Mangan keeps us in order. He is down on us about every extra halfpenny. We could never do without him. You see, he will sit up all night thinking of how to save sixpence. Won’t Ellie make him jump, though, when she takes his house in hand! | | Mrs. Hushabye | Then the creature is a fraud even as a captain of industry! | | Mazzini | I am afraid all the captains of industry are what you call frauds, Mrs. Hushabye. Of course there are some manufacturers who really do understand their own works; but they don’t make as high a rate of profit as Mangan does. I assure you Mangan is quite a good fellow in his way. He means well. | | Mrs. Hushabye | He doesn’t look well. He is not in his first youth, is he? | | Mazzini | After all, no husband is in his first youth for very long, Mrs. Hushabye. And men can’t afford to marry in their first youth nowadays. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Now if I said that, it would sound witty. Why can’t you say it wittily? What on earth is the matter with you? Why don’t you inspire everybody with confidence? with respect? | | Mazzini | Humbly. I think that what is the matter with me is that I am poor. You don’t know what that means at home. Mind: I don’t say they have ever complained. They’ve all been wonderful: they’ve been proud of my poverty. They’ve even joked about it quite often. But my wife has had a very poor time of it. She has been quite resigned⁠— | | Mrs. Hushabye | Shuddering involuntarily. !! | | Mazzini | There! You see, Mrs. Hushabye. I don’t want Ellie to live on resignation. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Do you want her to have to resign herself to living with a man she doesn’t love? | | Mazzini | Wistfully. Are you sure that would be worse than living with a man she did love, if he was a footling person? | | Mrs. Hushabye | Relaxing her contemptuous attitude, quite interested in Mazzini now. You know, I really think you must love Ellie very much; for you become quite clever when you talk about her. | | Mazzini | I didn’t know I was so very stupid on other subjects. | | Mrs. Hushabye | You are, sometimes. | | Mazzini | Turning his head away; for his eyes are wet. I have learnt a good deal about myself from you, Mrs. Hushabye; and I’m afraid I shall not be the happier for your plain speaking. But if you thought I needed it to make me think of Ellie’s happiness you were very much mistaken. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Leaning towards him kindly. Have I been a beast? | | Mazzini | Pulling himself together. It doesn’t matter about me, Mrs. Hushabye. I think you like Ellie; and that is enough for me. | | Mrs. Hushabye | I’m beginning to like you a little. I perfectly loathed you at first. I thought you the most odious, self-satisfied, boresome elderly prig I ever met. | | Mazzini | Resigned, and now quite cheerful. I daresay I am all that. I never have been a favorite with gorgeous women like you. They always frighten me. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Pleased. Am I a gorgeous woman, Mazzini? I shall fall in love with you presently. | | Mazzini | With placid gallantry. No, you won’t, Hesione. But you would be quite safe. Would you believe it that quite a lot of women have flirted with me because I am quite safe? But they get tired of me for the same reason. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Mischievously. Take care. You may not be so safe as you think. | | Mazzini | Oh yes, quite safe. You see, I have been in love really: the sort of love that only happens once. Softly. That’s why Ellie is such a lovely girl. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Well, really, you are coming out. Are you quite sure you won’t let me tempt you into a second grand passion? | | Mazzini | Quite. It wouldn’t be natural. The fact is, you don’t strike on my box, Mrs. Hushabye; and I certainly don’t strike on yours. | | Mrs. Hushabye | I see. Your marriage was a safety match. | | Mazzini | What a very witty application of the expression I used! I should never have thought of it. | | | Ellie comes in from the garden, looking anything but happy. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Rising. Oh! here is Ellie at last. She goes behind the sofa. | | Ellie | On the threshold of the starboard door. Guinness said you wanted me: you and Papa. | | Mrs. Hushabye | You have kept us waiting so long that it almost came to⁠—well, never mind. Your father is a very wonderful man she ruffles his hair affectionately: the only one I ever met who could resist me when I made myself really agreeable. *She comes to the big chair, on Mangan’s left. Come here. I have something to show you. Ellie strolls listlessly to the other side of the chair. Look. | | Ellie | Contemplating Mangan without interest. I know. He is only asleep. We had a talk after dinner; and he fell asleep in the middle of it. | | Mrs. Hushabye | You did it, Ellie. You put him asleep. | | Mazzini | Rising quickly and coming to the back of the chair. Oh, I hope not. Did you, Ellie? | | Ellie | Wearily. He asked me to. | | Mazzini | But it’s dangerous. You know what happened to me. | | Ellie | Utterly indifferent. Oh, I daresay I can wake him. If not, somebody else can. | | Mrs. Hushabye | It doesn’t matter, anyhow, because I have at last persuaded your father that you don’t want to marry him. | | Ellie | Suddenly coming out of her listlessness, much vexed. But why did you do that, Hesione? I do want to marry him. I fully intend to marry him. | | Mazzini | Are you quite sure, Ellie? Mrs. Hushabye has made me feel that I may have been thoughtless and selfish about it. | | Ellie | Very clearly and steadily. Papa. When Mrs. Hushabye takes it on herself to explain to you what I think or don’t think, shut your ears tight; and shut your eyes too. Hesione knows nothing about me: she hasn’t the least notion of the sort of person I am, and never will. I promise you I won’t do anything I don’t want to do and mean to do for my own sake. | | Mazzini | You are quite, quite sure? | | Ellie | Quite, quite sure. Now you must go away and leave me to talk to Mrs. Hushabye. | | Mazzini | But I should like to hear. Shall I be in the way? | | Ellie | Inexorable. I had rather talk to her alone. | | Mazzini | Affectionately. Oh, well, I know what a nuisance parents are, dear. I will be good and go. He goes to the garden door. By the way, do you remember the address of that professional who woke me up? Don’t you think I had better telegraph to him? | | Mrs. Hushabye | Moving towards the sofa. It’s too late to telegraph tonight. | | Mazzini | I suppose so. I do hope he’ll wake up in the course of the night. He goes out into the garden. | | Ellie | Turning vigorously on Hesione the moment her father is out of the room. Hesione, what the devil do you mean by making mischief with my father about Mangan? | | Mrs. Hushabye | Promptly losing her temper. Don’t you dare speak to me like that, you little minx. Remember that you are in my house. | | Ellie | Stuff! Why don’t you mind your own business? What is it to you whether I choose to marry Mangan or not? | | Mrs. Hushabye | Do you suppose you can bully me, you miserable little matrimonial adventurer? | | Ellie | Every woman who hasn’t any money is a matrimonial adventurer. It’s easy for you to talk: you have never known what it is to want money; and you can pick up men as if they were daisies. I am poor and respectable⁠— | | Mrs. Hushabye | Interrupting. Ho! respectable! How did you pick up Mangan? How did you pick up my husband? You have the audacity to tell me that I am a⁠—a⁠—a⁠— | | Ellie | A siren. So you are. You were born to lead men by the nose: if you weren’t, Marcus would have waited for me, perhaps. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Suddenly melting and half laughing. Oh, my poor Ellie, my pettikins, my unhappy darling! I am so sorry about Hector. But what can I do? It’s not my fault: I’d give him to you if I could. | | Ellie | I don’t blame you for that. | | Mrs. Hushabye | What a brute I was to quarrel with you and call you names! Do kiss me and say you’re not angry with me. | | Ellie | Fiercely. Oh, don’t slop and gush and be sentimental. Don’t you see that unless I can be hard⁠—as hard as nails⁠—I shall go mad? I don’t care a damn about your calling me names: do you think a woman in my situation can feel a few hard words? | | Mrs. Hushabye | Poor little woman! Poor little situation! | | Ellie | I suppose you think you’re being sympathetic. You are just foolish and stupid and selfish. You see me getting a smasher right in the face that kills a whole part of my life: the best part that can never come again; and you think you can help me over it by a little coaxing and kissing. When I want all the strength I can get to lean on: something iron, something stony, I don’t care how cruel it is, you go all mushy and want to slobber over me. I’m not angry; I’m not unfriendly; but for God’s sake do pull yourself together; and don’t think that because you’re on velvet and always have been, women who are in hell can take it as easily as you. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Shrugging her shoulders. Very well. She sits down on the sofa in her old place. But I warn you that when I am neither coaxing and kissing nor laughing, I am just wondering how much longer I can stand living in this cruel, damnable world. You object to the siren: well, I drop the siren. You want to rest your wounded bosom against a grindstone. Well folding her arms, here is the grindstone. | | Ellie | Sitting down beside her, appeased. That’s better: you really have the trick of falling in with everyone’s mood; but you don’t understand, because you are not the sort of woman for whom there is only one man and only one chance. | | Mrs. Hushabye | I certainly don’t understand how your marrying that object indicating *Mangan will console you for not being able to marry Hector. | | Ellie | Perhaps you don’t understand why I was quite a nice girl this morning, and am now neither a girl nor particularly nice. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Oh, yes, I do. It’s because you have made up your mind to do something despicable and wicked. | | Ellie | I don’t think so, Hesione. I must make the best of my ruined house. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Pooh! You’ll get over it. Your house isn’t ruined. | | Ellie | Of course I shall get over it. You don’t suppose I’m going to sit down and die of a broken heart, I hope, or be an old maid living on a pittance from the Sick and Indigent Roomkeepers’ Association. But my heart is broken, all the same. What I mean by that is that I know that what has happened to me with Marcus will not happen to me ever again. In the world for me there is Marcus and a lot of other men of whom one is just the same as another. Well, if I can’t have love, that’s no reason why I should have poverty. If Mangan has nothing else, he has money. | | Mrs. Hushabye | And are there no young men with money? | | Ellie | Not within my reach. Besides, a young man would have the right to expect love from me, and would perhaps leave me when he found I could not give it to him. Rich young men can get rid of their wives, you know, pretty cheaply. But this object, as you call him, can expect nothing more from me than I am prepared to give him. | | Mrs. Hushabye | He will be your owner, remember. If he buys you, he will make the bargain pay him and not you. Ask your father. | | Ellie | Rising and strolling to the chair to contemplate their subject. You need not trouble on that score, Hesione. I have more to give Boss Mangan than he has to give me: it is I who am buying him, and at a pretty good price too, I think. Women are better at that sort of bargain than men. I have taken the Boss’s measure; and ten Boss Mangans shall not prevent me doing far more as I please as his wife than I have ever been able to do as a poor girl. Stooping to the recumbent figure. Shall they, Boss? I think not. She passes on to the drawing table, and leans against the end of it, facing the windows. I shall not have to spend most of my time wondering how long my gloves will last, anyhow. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Rising superbly. Ellie, you are a wicked, sordid little beast. And to think that I actually condescended to fascinate that creature there to save you from him! Well, let me tell you this: if you make this disgusting match, you will never see Hector again if I can help it. | | Ellie | Unmoved. I nailed Mangan by telling him that if he did not marry me he should never see you again. She lifts herself on her wrists and seats herself on the end of the table. | | Mrs. Hushabye | Recoiling. Oh! |