George Bernard Shaw a penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication

with her nose]. Would he be drunk, do you think, pet?
MRS HUSHABYE
. Had he any of papa’s rum?
MAZZINI
. It can’t be that: he is most abstemious. I am afraid he
drank too much formerly, and has to drink too little now. You
know, Mrs Hushabye, I really think he has been hypnotized.
GUINNESS
. Hip no what, sir?
MAZZINI
. One evening at home, after we had seen a hyp-
notizing performance, the children began playing at it; and
Ellie stroked my head. I assure you I went off dead asleep;
and they had to send for a professional to wake me up after
I had slept eighteen hours. They had to carry me upstairs;
and as the poor children were not very strong, they let me
slip; and I rolled right down the whole flight and never woke
up. [Mrs Hushabye splutters]. Oh, you may laugh, Mrs
Hushabye; but I might have been killed.
MRS HUSHABYE
. I couldn’t have helped laughing even if you
had been, Mr Dunn. So Ellie has hypnotized him. What fun!
MAZZINI
. Oh no, no, no. It was such a terrible lesson to
her: nothing would induce her to try such a thing again.
MRS HUSHABYE
. Then who did it? I didn’t.
MAZZINI
. I thought perhaps the captain might have done
it unintentionally. He is so fearfully magnetic: I feel vibra-
tions whenever he comes close to me.
GUINNESS
. The captain will get him out of it anyhow, sir:
I’ll back him for that. I’ll go fetch him [she makes for the
pantry].

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82
Heartbreak House
MRS HUSHABYE
. Wait a bit. [To Mazzini]. You say he is
all right for eighteen hours?
MAZZINI
. Well, I was asleep for eighteen hours.
MRS HUSHABYE
. Were you any the worse for it?
MAZZINI
. I don’t quite remember. They had poured brandy
down my throat, you see; and—
MRS HUSHABYE
. Quite. Anyhow, you survived. Nurse,
darling: go and ask Miss Dunn to come to us here. Say I
want to speak to her particularly. You will find her with Mr
Hushabye probably.
GUINNESS
. I think not, ducky: Miss Addy is with him.
But I’ll find her and send her to you. [She goes out into the
garden].
MRS HUSHABYE 
[calling Mazzini’s attention to the figure
on the chair]. Now, Mr Dunn, look. Just look. Look hard.
Do you still intend to sacrifice your daughter to that thing?
MAZZINI 
[troubled]. You have completely upset me, Mrs
Hushabye, by all you have said to me. That anyone could
imagine that I—I, a consecrated soldier of freedom, if I may
say so—could sacrifice Ellie to anybody or anyone, or that I
should ever have dreamed of forcing her inclinations in any
way, is a most painful blow to my—well, I suppose you would
say to my good opinion of myself.
MRS HUSHABYE 
[rather stolidly]. Sorry.
MAZZINI 
[looking forlornly at the body]. What is your ob-
jection to poor Mangan, Mrs Hushabye? He looks all right
to me. But then I am so accustomed to him.
MRS HUSHABYE
. Have you no heart? Have you no sense?
Look at the brute! Think of poor weak innocent Ellie in the
clutches of this slavedriver, who spends his life making thou-
sands of rough violent workmen bend to his will and sweat
for him: a man accustomed to have great masses of iron beaten
into shape for him by steam-hammers! to fight with women
and girls over a halfpenny an hour ruthlessly! a captain of
industry, I think you call him, don’t you? Are you going to
fling your delicate, sweet, helpless child into such a beast’s
claws just because he will keep her in an expensive house
and make her wear diamonds to show how rich he is?
MAZZINI 
[staring at her in wide-eyed amazement]. 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!

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83
GB Shaw
MAZZINI
. But he doesn’t know anything about machin-
ery. 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