Joseph Conrad

“ Why don't that extravagant fellow get you a servant?
Bessie. I don't know.
Capt. H. (Cheerily) . Wait till Harry comes home. He'll get you one.
Bessie (Almost hysterical; laughs) . Why, Captain Hagberd, perhaps your son won't even want to look at me--when he comes home.
Capt. H. (In a great voice) . What! (Quite low.) The boy wouldn't dare. (Rising choler.) Wouldn't dare to refuse the only sensible girl for miles around. That stubborn jackanapes refuse to marry a girl like you! (Walks about in a fury.) You trust me, my dear, my dear, my dear. I'll make him. ”

“ Bessie. Captain Hagberd's talk never hurt you or anybody else.
Carvil. Go on. Stick up for your only friend.
Bessie. Is it my fault that I haven't another soul to speak to?
Carvil (Snarls) . It's mine, perhaps. Can I help being blind? You fret because you want to be gadding about—with a helpless man left all alone at home. Your own father too.
Bessie. I haven't been away from you half a day since mother died.
Carvil (Viciously) . He's a lunatic, our landlord is. That's what he is. Has been for years—long before those damned doctors destroyed my sight for me. ”

“ Five quid isn't much to ask for--once in sixteen years. (Through his teeth with a sidelong look at B.) And now I am ready to go--for my fare.
Bessie (Clasping her hands) . Whoever heard a man talk like this before! I can't believe you mean it?
Harry. What? That I would go? You just try and see.
Bessie (Disregarding him) . Don't you care for anyone? Didn't you ever want anyone in the world to care for you?
Harry. In the world! (Boastful.) There's hardly a place you can go in the world where you wouldn't find somebody that did care for Harry Hagberd. ”

“ Harry (Raving to and fro) . No! Expects me--a home. Who wants his home?... What I want is hard work, or an all-fired racket, or more room than there is in the whole of England. Expects me! A man like me--for his rotten money--there ain't enough money in the world to turn me into a blamed tame rabbit in a hutch. (He stops suddenly before Bessie, arms crossed on breast. Violently.) ”

“ Harry (From railings) . The old man seems to have gone to sleep waiting for that to-morrow of his.
Bessie. Come away. He sleeps very little.
Harry (Strolls down) . He has taken an everlasting jamming hitch round the whole business. (Vexed.) Cast it loose who may. (Contemptuous exclamation.) To-morrow. Pooh! It'll be just another mad today.
Bessie. It's the brooding over his hope that's done it. People teased him so. It's his fondness for you that's troubled his mind.
Harry. Aye. A confounded shovel on the head. The old man had always a queer way of showing his fondness for me. ”

“ Carvil. Help me up. Steady. I'm dizzy. It's the thundery weather. An autumn thunderstorm means a bad gale. Very fierce--and sudden. There will be shipwrecks to-night on our coast.
(Exit Bessie and Carvil through door of their cottage. It has fallen dusk.)
Capt. H. (Picks up spade) . Extravagant fellow! And all this town is mad--perfectly mad. I found them out years ago. Thank God they don't come this way staring and grinning. I can't bear them. I'll never go again into that High Street. (Agitated.) Never, never, never. Won't need to after to-morrow. Never! (Flings down spade in passion.) ”

“ Carvil. No. They've grown too fly. You've got only to pass a remark on his sail-cloth coat to make him shut up. All the town knows it. But he's got you to listen to his crazy talk whenever he chooses. Don't I hear you two at it, jabber, jabber, mumble, mumble———
Bessie. What is there so mad in keeping up hope?
Carvil (Scathing scorn) . Not mad! Starving himself to lay money by—for that son. Filling his house with furniture he won't let anyone see—for that son. Advertising in the papers every week, these sixteen years—for that son. Not mad! Boy, he calls him. Boy Harry. His boy Harry. ”

“ Bessie (Frightened, drops knitting) . Captain Hagberd—don't. (Catches hold of his shoulders over the railings?) Don't—my God! He's going out of his mind! (Cries.) I didn't mean it! I don't know.
Capt. H. (Has backed away. An affected burst of laughter) . What nonsense. None of us Hagberds belonged to the sea. All farmers for hundreds of years, (fraternal and cunning?) Don't alarm yourself, my dear. The sea can't get us. Look at me! I didn't get drowned. Moreover, Harry ain't a sailor at all. And if he isn't a sailor, he's bound to come back—to-morrow. ”

“ He's been scraping and saving up for years. All he has is for you, and perhaps...
Harry (Interrupts) . Yes. If I come to sit on it like a blamed toad in a hole. Thank you.
Bessie (Angrily) . What did you come for, then?
Harry (Promptly) . For five quid-- (Pause.) --after a jolly good spree.
Bessie (Scathingly) . You and that--that--chum of yours have been drinking.
Harry (Laughs) . Don't fly out, Miss Bessie--dear. Ginger's not a bad little chap. Can't take care of himself, tho'. Blind three days. (Serious.) Don't think I am given that way. Nothing and nobody can get over me unless I like. ”

“ Of course it isn't as if he had a son to make a home ready for. Girls are different, my dear. They don't run away, my dear, my dear. (Agitated.)
Bessie (Drops her arms wearily) . No, Captain Hagberd--they don't.
Capt. H. (Slowly) . I wouldn't let my own flesh and blood go to sea. Not I.
Bessie. And the boy ran away.
Capt. H. (A little vacantly) . Yes, my only son Harry. (Rouses himself.) Coming home to-morrow.
Bessie (Speaks softly) . Sometimes, Captain Hagberd, a hope turns out false.
Capt. H. (Uneasy) . What's that got to do with Harry's coming back?
Bessie. It's good to hope for something. ”

“ Harry (Commiserating) . For years and years. In one of them hutches. You are a good daughter. (Brightening up.) A fine girl altogether. You seem the sort that makes a good chum to a man in a fix. And there's not a man in this whole town who found you out? I can hardly credit it, Miss Bessie. (B. shakes her head.) Man I said! (Contemptuous.) A lot of tame rabbits in hutches I call them.... (Breaks off.) I say, when's the last train up to London? Can you tell me?
Bessie (Gazes at him steadily) . What for? You've no money.
Harry. That's just it. (Leans back against post again.) Hard luck. ”

“ Bessie. Captain Hagberd (white beard, sail-cloth jacket) .
Bessie (Knitting) . You've been out this afternoon for quite a long time, haven't you?
Capt. Hagberd (Eager) . Yes, my dear. (Slily) Of course you saw me come back.
Bessie. Oh, yes. I did see you. You had something under your coat.
Capt. H. (Anxiously) . It was only a kettle, my dear. A tin water-kettle. I am glad I thought of it just in time. (Winks, nods.) When a husband gets back from his work he needs a lot of water for a wash. See? (Dignified.) Not that Harry'll ever need to do a hand's turn after he comes home... ”

“ I'd like to know about this swindle that's going to be sprung on him. I didn't mean to startle the old man. You see, on my way here I dropped into a barber's to get a twopenny shave, and they told me there that he was something of a character. ”

“ Pulls down blind. Enter Lamplighter. Capt. H. picks up the spade and leans forward on it with both hands; very still, watching him light the lamp.)
Lamplighter (Jocular) . There! You will be able to dig by lamplight if the fancy takes you. ”

“ One good shove— (Makes motion of bursting in door with his shoulders) —would burst that door in—I bet. (Looks about.) I wonder where the nearest bobby is! No. They would want to bundle me neck and crop into chokey. ”