Misalliance

coming to blows, I used to adjourn the sitting. Let us postpone the discussion. Wait until Monday: we shall have Sunday to quiet down in. Believe me, I’m not making fun of you; but I think there’s something in this young gentleman’s advice. Read something. Tarleton I’ll read King Lear. Hypatia Don’t. I’m very sorry, dear. Tarleton You’re not. You’re laughing at me. Serve me right! Parents and children! No man should know his own child. No child should know its own father. Let the family be rooted out of civilization! Let the human race be brought up in institutions! Hypatia Oh yes. How jolly! You and I might be friends then; and Joey could stay to dinner. Tarleton Let him stay to dinner. Let him stay to breakfast. Let him spend his life here. Don’t you say I drove him out. Don’t you say I drove you out. Percival I really have no right to inflict myself on you. Dropping in as I did⁠— Tarleton Out of the sky. Ha! Dropping in. The new sport of aviation. You just see a nice house; drop in; scoop up the man’s daughter; and off with you again. Bentley comes back, with his shoulders hanging as if he too had been exercised to the last pitch of fatigue. He is very sad. They stare at him as he gropes to Percival’s chair. Bentley I’m sorry for making a fool of myself. I beg your pardon. Hypatia: I’m awfully sorry; but I’ve made up my mind that I’ll never marry. He sits down in deep depression. Hypatia Running to him. How nice of you, Bentley! Of course you guessed I wanted to marry Joey. What did the Polish lady do to you? Bentley Turning his head away. I’d rather not speak of her, if you don’t mind. Hypatia You’ve fallen in love with her. She laughs. Bentley It’s beastly of you to laugh. Lord Summerhays You’re not the first to fall today under the lash of that young lady’s terrible derision, Bentley. Lina, her cap on, and her goggles in her hand, comes impetuously through the inner door. Lina On the steps. Mr. Percival: can we get that aeroplane started again? She comes down and runs to the pavilion door. I must get out of this into the air: right up into the blue. Percival Impossible. The frame’s twisted. The petrol has given out: that’s what brought us down. And how can we get a clear run to start with among these woods? Lina Swooping back through the middle of the pavilion. We can straighten the frame. We can buy petrol at the Beacon. With a few laborers we can get her out on to the Portsmouth Road and start her along that. Tarleton Rising. But why do you want to leave us, Miss Szcz? Lina Old pal: this is a stuffy house. You seem to think of nothing but making love. All the conversation here is about lovemaking. All the pictures are about lovemaking. The eyes of all of you are sheep’s eyes. You are steeped in it, soaked in it: the very texts on the walls of your bedrooms are the ones about love. It is disgusting. It is not healthy. Your women are kept idle and dressed up for no other purpose than to be made love to. I have not been here an hour; and already everybody makes love to me as if because I am a woman it were my profession to be made love to. First you, old pal. I forgave you because you were nice about your wife. Hypatia Oh! oh! oh! Oh, papa! Lina Then you, Lord Summerhays, come to me; and all you have to say is to ask me not to mention that you made love to me in Vienna two years ago. I forgave you because I thought you were an ambassador; and all ambassadors make love and are very nice and useful to people who travel. Then this young gentleman. He is engaged to this young lady; but no matter for that: he makes love to me because I carry him off in my arms when he cries. All these I bore in silence. But now comes your Johnny and tells me I’m a ripping fine woman, and asks me to marry him. I, Lina Szczepanowska, marry him!!!!! I do not mind this boy: he is a child: he loves me: I should have to give him money and take care of him: that would be foolish, but honorable. I do not mind you, old pal: you are what you call an old⁠—ouf! but you do not offer to buy me: you say until we are tired⁠—until you are so happy that you dare not ask for more. That is foolish too, at your age; but it is an adventure: it is not dishonorable. I do not mind Lord Summerhays: it was in Vienna: they had been toasting him at a great banquet: he was not sober. That is bad for the health; but it is not dishonorable. But your Johnny! Oh, your Johnny! with his marriage. He will do the straight thing by me. He will give me a home, a position. He tells me I must know that my present position is not one for a nice woman. This to me, Lina Szczepanowska! I am an honest woman: I earn my living. I am a free woman: I live in my own house. I am a woman of the world: I have thousands of friends: every night crowds of people applaud me, delight in me, buy my picture, pay hard-earned money to see me. I am strong: I am skilful: I am brave: I am independent: I am unbought: I am all that a woman ought to be; and in my family there has not been a single drunkard for four generations. And this Englishman! this linendraper! he dares to ask me to come and live with him in this rrrrrrrabbit hutch, and take my bread from