Heartbreak House

and throwing her arms round him. Papa, don’t say you think I’ve no heart. Captain Shotover Raising her with grim tenderness. If you had no heart how could you want to have it broken, child? Hector Rising with a bound. Lady Utterword, you are not to be trusted. You have made a scene. He runs out into the garden through the starboard door. Lady Utterword Oh! Hector, Hector! She runs out after him. Randall Only nerves, I assure you. He rises and follows her, waving the poker in his agitation. Ariadne! Ariadne! For God’s sake, be careful. You will⁠—He is gone. Mazzini Rising. How distressing! Can I do anything, I wonder? Captain Shotover Promptly taking his chair and setting to work at the drawing board. No. Go to bed. Good night. Mazzini Bewildered. Oh! Perhaps you are right. Ellie Good night, dearest. She kisses him. Mazzini Good night, love. He makes for the door, but turns aside to the bookshelves. I’ll just take a book. He takes one. Good night. He goes out, leaving Ellie alone with the Captain. The Captain is intent on his drawing. Ellie, standing sentry over his chair, contemplates him for a moment. Ellie Does nothing ever disturb you, Captain Shotover? Captain Shotover I’ve stood on the bridge for eighteen hours in a typhoon. Life here is stormier; but I can stand it. Ellie Do you think I ought to marry Mr. Mangan? Captain Shotover Never looking up. One rock is as good as another to be wrecked on. Ellie I am not in love with him. Captain Shotover Who said you were? Ellie You are not surprised? Captain Shotover Surprised! At my age! Ellie It seems to me quite fair. He wants me for one thing: I want him for another. Captain Shotover Money? Ellie Yes. Captain Shotover Well, one turns the cheek: the other kisses it. One provides the cash: the other spends it. Ellie Who will have the best of the bargain, I wonder? Captain Shotover You. These fellows live in an office all day. You will have to put up with him from dinner to breakfast; but you will both be asleep most of that time. All day you will be quit of him; and you will be shopping with his money. If that is too much for you, marry a seafaring man: you will be bothered with him only three weeks in the year, perhaps. Ellie That would be best of all, I suppose. Captain Shotover It’s a dangerous thing to be married right up to the hilt, like my daughter’s husband. The man is at home all day, like a damned soul in hell. Ellie I never thought of that before. Captain Shotover If you’re marrying for business, you can’t be too businesslike. Ellie Why do women always want other women’s husbands? Captain Shotover Why do horse-thieves prefer a horse that is broken-in to one that is wild? Ellie With a short laugh. I suppose so. What a vile world it is! Captain Shotover It doesn’t concern me. I’m nearly out of it. Ellie And I’m only just beginning. Captain Shotover Yes; so look ahead. Ellie Well, I think I am being very prudent. Captain Shotover I didn’t say prudent. I said look ahead. Ellie What’s the difference? Captain Shotover It’s prudent to gain the whole world and lose your own soul. But don’t forget that your soul sticks to you if you stick to it; but the world has a way of slipping through your fingers. Ellie Wearily, leaving him and beginning to wander restlessly about the room. I’m sorry, Captain Shotover; but it’s no use talking like that to me. Old-fashioned people are no use to me. Old-fashioned people think you can have a soul without money. They think the less money you have, the more soul you have. Young people nowadays know better. A soul is a very expensive thing to keep: much more so than a motor car. Captain Shotover Is it? How much does your soul eat? Ellie Oh, a lot. It eats music and pictures and books and mountains and lakes and beautiful things to wear and nice people to be with. In this country you can’t have them without lots of money: that is why our souls are so horribly starved. Captain Shotover Mangan’s soul lives on pigs’ food. Ellie Yes: money is thrown away on him. I suppose his soul was starved when he was young. But it will not be thrown away on me. It is just because I want to save my soul that I am marrying for money. All the women who are not fools do. Captain Shotover There are other ways of getting money. Why don’t you steal it? Ellie Because I don’t want to go to prison. Captain Shotover Is that the only reason? Are you quite sure honesty has nothing to do with it? Ellie Oh, you are very very old-fashioned, Captain. Does any modern girl believe that the legal and illegal ways of getting money are the honest and dishonest ways? Mangan robbed my father and my father’s friends. I should rob all the money back from Mangan if the police would let me. As they won’t, I must get it back by marrying him. Captain Shotover I can’t argue: I’m too old: my mind is made up and finished. All I can tell you is that, old-fashioned or new-fashioned, if you sell yourself, you deal your soul a blow that all the books and pictures and concerts and scenery in the world won’t heal. He gets up suddenly and makes for the pantry. Ellie Running after him and seizing him by the sleeve. Then why did you sell yourself to the devil in Zanzibar? Captain Shotover Stopping, startled. What? Ellie You shall not run away before you answer. I have found out that trick of yours. If you sold yourself, why shouldn’t I? Captain Shotover I had to deal with men so degraded that they wouldn’t obey me unless I swore at them and kicked them and beat them with my fists. Foolish people took young thieves off the streets; flung them