Heartbreak House

someone outside. Mr. Mangan’s not here, duckie: there’s no one here. It’s all dark. Mrs. Hushabye Without. Try the garden. Mr. Dunn and I will be in my boudoir. Show him the way. Guinness Yes, ducky. She makes for the garden door in the dark; stumbles over the sleeping Mangan; and screams. Ahoo! O Lord, sir! I beg your pardon, I’m sure: I didn’t see you in the dark. Who is it? She goes back to the door and turns on the light. Oh, Mr. Mangan, sir, I hope I haven’t hurt you plumping into your lap like that. Coming to him. I was looking for you, sir. Mrs. Hushabye says will you please⁠—Noticing that he remains quite insensible. Oh, my good Lord, I hope I haven’t killed him. Sir! Mr. Mangan! Sir! She shakes him; and he is rolling inertly off the chair on the floor when she holds him up and props him against the cushion. Miss Hessy! Miss Hessy! quick, doty darling. Miss Hessy! Mrs. Hushabye comes in from the hall, followed by Mazzini Dunn. Oh, Miss Hessy, I’ve been and killed him. Mazzini runs round the back of the chair to Mangan’s right hand, and sees that the Nurse’s words are apparently only too true. Mazzini What tempted you to commit such a crime, woman? Mrs. Hushabye Trying not to laugh. Do you mean, you did it on purpose? Guinness Now is it likely I’d kill any man on purpose? I fell over him in the dark; and I’m a pretty tidy weight. He never spoke nor moved until I shook him; and then he would have dropped dead on the floor. Isn’t it tiresome? Mrs. Hushabye Going past the Nurse to Mangan’s side, and inspecting him less credulously than Mazzini. Nonsense! he is not dead: he is only asleep. I can see him breathing. Guinness But why won’t he wake? Mazzini Speaking very politely into Mangan’s ear. Mangan! My dear Mangan! He blows into Mangan’s ear. Mrs. Hushabye That’s no good. She shakes him vigorously. Mr. Mangan: wake up. Do you hear? He begins to roll over. Oh! Nurse, nurse: he’s falling: help me. Nurse Guinness rushes to the rescue. With Mazzini’s assistance, Mangan is propped safely up again. Guinness Behind the chair; bending over to test the case with her nose. Would he be drunk, do you think, pet? Mrs. Hushabye Had he any of Papa’s rum? Mazzini It can’t be that: he is most abstemious. I am afraid he drank too much formerly, and has to drink too little now. You know, Mrs. Hushabye, I really think he has been hypnotized. Guinness Hip no what, sir? Mazzini One evening at home, after we had seen a hypnotizing performance, the children began playing at it; and Ellie stroked my head. I assure you I went off dead asleep; and they had to send for a professional to wake me up after I had slept eighteen hours. They had to carry me upstairs; and as the poor children were not very strong, they let me slip; and I rolled right down the whole flight and never woke up. Mrs. Hushabye splutters. Oh, you may laugh, Mrs. Hushabye; but I might have been killed. Mrs. Hushabye I couldn’t have helped laughing even if you had been, Mr. Dunn. So Ellie has hypnotized him. What fun! Mazzini Oh no, no, no. It was such a terrible lesson to her: nothing would induce her to try such a thing again. Mrs. Hushabye Then who did it? I didn’t. Mazzini I thought perhaps the captain might have done it unintentionally. He is so fearfully magnetic: I feel vibrations whenever he comes close to me. Guinness The captain will get him out of it anyhow, sir: I’ll back him for that. I’ll go fetch him. She makes for the pantry. Mrs. Hushabye Wait a bit. To Mazzini. You say he is all right for eighteen hours? Mazzini Well, I was asleep for eighteen hours. Mrs. Hushabye Were you any the worse for it? Mazzini I don’t quite remember. They had poured brandy down my throat, you see; and⁠— Mrs. Hushabye Quite. Anyhow, you survived. Nurse, darling: go and ask Miss Dunn to come to us here. Say I want to speak to her particularly. You will find her with Mr. Hushabye probably. Guinness I think not, ducky: Miss Addy is with him. But I’ll find her and send her to you. She goes out into the garden. Mrs. Hushabye Calling Mazzini’s attention to the figure on the chair. Now, Mr. Dunn, look. Just look. Look hard. Do you still intend to sacrifice your daughter to that thing? Mazzini Troubled. You have completely upset me, Mrs. Hushabye, by all you have said to me. That anyone could imagine that I⁠—I, a consecrated soldier of freedom, if I may say so⁠—could sacrifice Ellie to anybody or anyone, or that I should ever have dreamed of forcing her inclinations in any way, is a most painful blow to my⁠—well, I suppose you would say to my good opinion of myself. Mrs. Hushabye Rather stolidly. Sorry. 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