Heartbreak House

I don’t mean that he lent it to him, or that he invested it in his business. He just simply made him a present of it. Wasn’t that splendid of him? Mrs. Hushabye On condition that you married him? Ellie Oh, no, no, no! This was when I was a child. He had never even seen me: he never came to our house. It was absolutely disinterested. Pure generosity. Mrs. Hushabye Oh! I beg the gentleman’s pardon. Well, what became of the money? Ellie We all got new clothes and moved into another house. And I went to another school for two years. Mrs. Hushabye Only two years? Ellie That was all: for at the end of two years my father was utterly ruined. Mrs. Hushabye How? Ellie I don’t know. I never could understand. But it was dreadful. When we were poor my father had never been in debt. But when he launched out into business on a large scale, he had to incur liabilities. When the business went into liquidation he owed more money than Mr. Mangan had given him. Mrs. Hushabye Bit off more than he could chew, I suppose. Ellie I think you are a little unfeeling about it. Mrs. Hushabye My pettikins, you mustn’t mind my way of talking. I was quite as sensitive and particular as you once; but I have picked up so much slang from the children that I am really hardly presentable. I suppose your father had no head for business, and made a mess of it. Ellie Oh, that just shows how entirely you are mistaken about him. The business turned out a great success. It now pays forty-four percent after deducting the excess profits tax. Mrs. Hushabye Then why aren’t you rolling in money? Ellie I don’t know. It seems very unfair to me. You see, my father was made bankrupt. It nearly broke his heart, because he had persuaded several of his friends to put money into the business. He was sure it would succeed; and events proved that he was quite right. But they all lost their money. It was dreadful. I don’t know what we should have done but for Mr. Mangan. Mrs. Hushabye What! Did the Boss come to the rescue again, after all his money being thrown away? Ellie He did indeed, and never uttered a reproach to my father. He bought what was left of the business⁠—the buildings and the machinery and things⁠—from the official trustee for enough money to enable my father to pay six-and-eightpence in the pound and get his discharge. Everyone pitied Papa so much, and saw so plainly that he was an honorable man, that they let him off at six-and-eightpence instead of ten shillings. Then Mr. Mangan started a company to take up the business, and made my father a manager in it to save us from starvation; for I wasn’t earning anything then. Mrs. Hushabye Quite a romance. And when did the Boss develop the tender passion? Ellie Oh, that was years after, quite lately. He took the chair one night at a sort of people’s concert. I was singing there. As an amateur, you know: half a guinea for expenses and three songs with three encores. He was so pleased with my singing that he asked might he walk home with me. I never saw anyone so taken aback as he was when I took him home and introduced him to my father, his own manager. It was then that my father told me how nobly he had behaved. Of course it was considered a great chance for me, as he is so rich. And⁠—and⁠—we drifted into a sort of understanding⁠—I suppose I should call it an engagement⁠—she is distressed and cannot go on. Mrs. Hushabye Rising and marching about. You may have drifted into it; but you will bounce out of it, my pettikins, if I am to have anything to do with it. Ellie Hopelessly. No: it’s no use. I am bound in honor and gratitude. I will go through with it. Mrs. Hushabye Behind the sofa, scolding down at her. You know, of course, that it’s not honorable or grateful to marry a man you don’t love. Do you love this Mangan man? Ellie Yes. At least⁠— Mrs. Hushabye I don’t want to know about “at least”: I want to know the worst. Girls of your age fall in love with all sorts of impossible people, especially old people. Ellie I like Mr. Mangan very much; and I shall always be⁠— Mrs. Hushabye Impatiently completing the sentence and prancing away intolerantly to starboard.⁠—grateful to him for his kindness to dear father. I know. Anybody else? Ellie What do you mean? Mrs. Hushabye Anybody else? Are you in love with anybody else? Ellie Of course not. Mrs. Hushabye Humph! The book on the drawing table catches her eye. She picks it up, and evidently finds the title very unexpected. She looks at Ellie, and asks, quaintly. Quite sure you’re not in love with an actor? Ellie No, no. Why? What put such a thing into your head? Mrs. Hushabye This is yours, isn’t it? Why else should you be reading Othello? Ellie My father taught me to love Shakespeare. Mrs. Hushaye Flinging the book down on the table. Really! your father does seem to be about the limit. Ellie Naively. Do you never read Shakespeare, Hesione? That seems to me so extraordinary. I like Othello. Mrs. Hushabye Do you, indeed? He was jealous, wasn’t he? Ellie Oh, not that. I think all the part about jealousy is horrible. But don’t you think it must have been a wonderful experience for Desdemona, brought up so quietly at home, to meet a man who had been out in the world doing all sorts of brave things and having terrible adventures, and yet finding something in her that made him love to sit and talk with her and tell her about them? Mrs. Hushabye That’s your idea of romance, is it? Ellie Not romance, exactly. It might really happen. Ellie’s eyes show that she is not arguing, but in a daydream. Mrs. Hushabye, watching