60
Heartbreak House
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER
[
finishing the sentence for him].—
made fools of themselves. That, also, is true.
MANGAN
[
asserting himself]. I don’t see that this is any
business of yours.
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER
. It is everybody’s business. The stars
in their courses are shaken when such things happen.
MANGAN
. I’m going to marry her all the same.
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER
. How do you know?
MANGAN
[
playing the strong man]. I intend to. I mean to.
See? I never made up my mind to do a thing yet that I didn’t
bring it off. That’s the sort of man I am; and there will be a
better understanding between us when you make up your
mind to that, Captain.
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER
. You frequent picture palaces.
MANGAN
. Perhaps I do. Who told you?
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER
. Talk like a man, not like a movie.
You mean that you make a hundred thousand a year.
MANGAN
. I don’t boast. But when I meet a man that makes
a hundred thousand a year, I take off my hat to that man,
and stretch out my hand to him and call him brother.
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER
. Then you also make a hundred
thousand a year, hey?
MANGAN
. No. I can’t say that. Fifty thousand, perhaps.
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER
. His half brother only [
he turns
away from Mangan with his usual abruptness, and collects the
empty tea-cups on the Chinese tray].
MANGAN
[
irritated]. See here, Captain Shotover. I don’t
quite understand my position here. I came here on your
daughter’s invitation. Am I in her house or in yours?
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER
. You are beneath the dome of
heaven, in the house of God. What is true within these walls
is true outside them. Go out on the seas; climb the moun-
tains; wander through the valleys. She is still too young.
MANGAN
[
weakening]. But I’m very little over fifty.
CAPTAIN SHOTOVER
. You are still less under sixty. Boss
Mangan, you will not marry the pirate’s child [
he carries the
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