You must
be content with a little share of me.
MANGAN [snifflng and wiping his eyes]. It isn't kind--[his
emotion chokes him].
LADY UTTERWORD. You are well out of it, Mr Mangan. Miss Dunn is
the most conceited young woman I have met since I came back to
England.
MRS HUSHABYE. Oh, Ellie isn't conceited. Are you, pettikins?
ELLIE. I know my strength now, Hesione.
MANGAN. Brazen, I call you. Brazen.
MRS HUSHABYE. Tut, tut, Alfred: don't be rude. Don't you feel how
lovely this marriage night is, made in heaven? Aren't you happy,
you and Hector? Open your eyes: Addy and Ellie look beautiful
enough to please the most fastidious man: we live and love and
have not a care in the world. We women have managed all that for
you. Why in the name of common sense do you go on as if you were
two miserable wretches?
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. I tell you happiness is no good. You can be
happy when you are only half alive. I am happier now I am half
dead than ever I was in my prime. But there is no blessing on my
happiness.
ELLIE [her face lighting up]. Life with a blessing! that is what
I want. Now I know the real reason why I couldn't marry Mr
Mangan: there would be no blessing on our marriage. There is a
blessing on my broken heart. There is a blessing on your beauty,
Hesione.
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