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 ****** 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 is a soul in torment here. What is the matter?
MANGAN. This girl doesn't want to spend her life wondering how long her gloves will last.
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER [passing through]. Don't wear any. I never do [he goes into the pantry].
LADY UTTERWORD [appearing at the port garden door, in a handsome dinner dress]. Is anything the matter?
ELLIE. This gentleman wants to know is he never to have the last word?
LADY UTTERWORD [coming forward to the sofa]. I should let him have it, my dear. The important thing is not to have the last word, but to have your own way.
MANGAN. She wants both.
LADY UTTERWORD. She won't get them, Mr Mangan. Providence always has the last word.
MANGAN [desperately]. Now you are going to come religion over me.
In this house a man's mind might as well be a football. I'm going. [He makes for the hall, but is stopped by a hail from the Captain, who has just emerged from his pantry].
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. Whither away, Boss Mangan?
MANGAN. To hell out of this house: let that be enough for you and all here.
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. You were welcome to come: you are free to go.
The wide earth, the high seas, the spacious skies are waiting for you outside.
LADY UTTERWORD. But your things, Mr Mangan. Your bag, your comb and brushes, your pyjamas--HECTOR [who has just appeared in the port doorway in a handsome Arab costume]. Why should the escaping slave take his chains with him?
MANGAN. That's right, Hushabye. Keep the pyjamas, my lady, and much good may they do you.
HECTOR [advancing to Lady Utterword's left hand]. Let us all go out into the night and leave everything behind us.
MANGAN. You stay where you are, the lot of you. I want no company, especially female company.
ELLIE. Let him go. He is unhappy here. He is angry with us.
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. Go, Boss Mangan; and when you have found the land where there is happiness and where there are no women, send me its latitude and longitude; and I will join you there.
LADY UTTERWORD. You will certainly not be comfortable without your luggage, Mr Mangan.
ELLIE [impatient]. Go, go: why don't you go? It is a heavenly night: you can sleep on the heath. Take my waterproof to lie on:
it is hanging up in the hall.
HECTOR. Breakfast at nine, unless you prefer to breakfast with the captain at six.
ELLIE. Good night, Alfred.
HECTOR. Alfred! [He runs back to the door and calls into the garden]. Randall, Mangan's Christian name is Alfred.
RANDALL [appearing in the starboard doorway in evening dress].
Then Hesione wins her bet.
Mrs Hushabye appears in the port doorway. She throws her left arm round Hector's neck: draws him with her to the back of the sofa:
and throws her right arm round Lady Utterword's neck.
MRS HUSHABYE. They wouldn't believe me, Alf.
They contemplate him.
MANGAN. Is there any more of you coming in to look at me, as if Iwas the latest thing in a menagerie?
MRS HUSHABYE. You are the latest thing in this menagerie.