Bless you, dear
Mrs Hushabye, what romantic ideas of business you have! Poor dear
Mangan isn't a bit like that.
MRS HUSHABYE [scornfully]. Poor dear Mangan indeed!
MAZZINI. But he doesn't know anything about machinery. He never
goes near the men: he couldn't manage them: he is afraid of them.
I never can get him to take the least interest in the works: he
hardly knows more about them than you do. People are cruelly
unjust to Mangan: they think he is all rugged strength just
because his manners are bad.
MRS HUSHABYE. Do you mean to tell me he isn't strong enough to
crush poor little Ellie?
MAZZINI. Of course it's very hard to say how any marriage will
turn out; but speaking for myself, I should say that he won't
have a dog's chance against Ellie. You know, Ellie has remarkable
strength of character. I think it is because I taught her to like
Shakespeare when she was very young.
MRS HUSHABYE [contemptuously]. Shakespeare! The next thing you
will tell me is that you could have made a great deal more money
than Mangan. [She retires to the sofa, and sits down at the port
end of it in the worst of humors].
MAZZINI [following her and taking the other end]. No: I'm no good
at making money. I don't care enough for it, somehow. I'm not
ambitious! that must be it.
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