That's your idea of romance, is it?
ELLIE. Not romance, exactly. It might really happen.
Ellie's eyes show that she is not arguing, but in a daydream. Mrs
Hushabye, watching her inquisitively, goes deliberately back to
the sofa and resumes her seat beside her.
MRS HUSHABYE. Ellie darling, have you noticed that some of those
stories that Othello told Desdemona couldn't have happened--?
ELLIE. Oh, no. Shakespeare thought they could have happened.
MRS HUSHABYE. Hm! Desdemona thought they could have happened. But
they didn't.
ELLIE. Why do you look so enigmatic about it? You are such a
sphinx: I never know what you mean.
MRS HUSHABYE. Desdemona would have found him out if she had
lived, you know. I wonder was that why he strangled her!
ELLIE. Othello was not telling lies.
MRS HUSHABYE. How do you know?
ELLIE. Shakespeare would have said if he was. Hesione, there are
men who have done wonderful things: men like Othello, only, of
course, white, and very handsome, and--
MRS HUSHABYE. Ah! Now we're coming to it. Tell me all about him.
I knew there must be somebody, or you'd never have been so
miserable about Mangan: you'd have thought it quite a lark to
marry him.
ELLIE [blushing vividly]. Hesione, you are dreadful. But I don't
want to make a secret of it, though of course I don't tell
everybody.
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