Heartbreak House

the movement with which she put him to sleep. Wake up, do you hear? You are to wake up at once. Wake up, wake up, wake⁠— Mangan Bouncing out of the chair in a fury and turning on them. Wake up! So you think I’ve been asleep, do you? He kicks the chair violently back out of his way, and gets between them. You throw me into a trance so that I can’t move hand or foot⁠—I might have been buried alive! it’s a mercy I wasn’t⁠—and then you think I was only asleep. If you’d let me drop the two times you rolled me about, my nose would have been flattened for life against the floor. But I’ve found you all out, anyhow. I know the sort of people I’m among now. I’ve heard every word you’ve said, you and your precious father, and to Mrs. Hushabye you too. So I’m an object, am I? I’m a thing, am I? I’m a fool that hasn’t sense enough to feed myself properly, am I? I’m afraid of the men that would starve if it weren’t for the wages I give them, am I? I’m nothing but a disgusting old skinflint to be made a convenience of by designing women and fool managers of my works, am I? I’m⁠— Mrs. Hushabye With the most elegant aplomb. Sh⁠—sh⁠—sh⁠—sh⁠—sh! Mr. Mangan, you are bound in honor to obliterate from your mind all you heard while you were pretending to be asleep. It was not meant for you to hear. Mangan Pretending to be asleep! Do you think if I was only pretending that I’d have sprawled there helpless, and listened to such unfairness, such lies, such injustice and plotting and backbiting and slandering of me, if I could have up and told you what I thought of you! I wonder I didn’t burst. Mrs. Hushabye Sweetly. You dreamt it all, Mr. Mangan. We were only saying how beautifully peaceful you looked in your sleep. That was all, wasn’t it, Ellie? Believe me, Mr. Mangan, all those unpleasant things came into your mind in the last half second before you woke. Ellie rubbed your hair the wrong way; and the disagreeable sensation suggested a disagreeable dream. Mangan Doggedly. I believe in dreams. Mrs. Hushabye So do I. But they go by contraries, don’t they? Mangan Depths of emotion suddenly welling up in him. I shan’t forget, to my dying day, that when you gave me the glad eye that time in the garden, you were making a fool of me. That was a dirty low mean thing to do. You had no right to let me come near you if I disgusted you. It isn’t my fault if I’m old and haven’t a moustache like a bronze candlestick as your husband has. There are things no decent woman would do to a man⁠—like a man hitting a woman in the breast. Hesione, utterly shamed, sits down on the sofa and covers her face with her hands. Mangan sits down also on his chair and begins to cry like a child. Ellie stares at them. Mrs. Hushabye, at the distressing sound he makes, takes down her hands and looks at him. She rises and runs to him. Mrs. Hushabye Don’t cry: I can’t bear it. Have I broken your heart? I didn’t know you had one. How could I? Mangan I’m a man, ain’t I? Mrs. Hushabye Half coaxing, half rallying, altogether tenderly. Oh no: not what I call a man. Only a Boss: just that and nothing else. What business has a Boss with a heart? Mangan Then you’re not a bit sorry for what you did, nor ashamed? Mrs. Hushabye I was ashamed for the first time in my life when you said that about hitting a woman in the breast, and I found out what I’d done. My very bones blushed red. You’ve had your revenge, Boss. Aren’t you satisfied? Mangan Serve you right! Do you hear? Serve you right! You’re just cruel. Cruel. Mrs. Hushabye Yes: cruelty would be delicious if one could only find some sort of cruelty that didn’t really hurt. By the way sitting down beside him on the arm of the chair, what’s your name? It’s not really Boss, is it? Mangan Shortly. If you want to know, my name’s Alfred. Mrs. Hushabye Springs up. Alfred!! Ellie, he was christened after Tennyson!!! Mangan Rising. I was christened after my uncle, and never had a penny from him, damn him! What of it? Mrs. Hushabye It comes to me suddenly that you are a real person: that you had a mother, like anyone else. Putting her hands on his shoulders and surveying him. Little Alf! Mangan Well, you have a nerve. Mrs. Hushabye And you have a heart, Alfy, a whimpering little heart, but a real one. Releasing him suddenly. Now run and make it up with Ellie. She has had time to think what to say to you, which is more than I had. She goes out quickly into the garden by the port door. Mangan That woman has a pair of hands that go right through you. Ellie Still in love with her, in spite of all we said about you? Mangan Are all women like you two? Do they never think of anything about a man except what they can get out of him? You weren’t even thinking that about me. You were only thinking whether your gloves would last. Ellie I shall not have to think about that when we are married. Mangan And you think I am going to marry you after what I heard there! Ellie You heard nothing from me that I did not tell you before. Mangan Perhaps you think I can’t do without you. Ellie I think you would feel lonely without us all, now, after coming to know us so well. Mangan With something like a yell of despair. Am I never to have the last word? Captain Shotover Appearing at the starboard garden door. There