St. John Hankin

Name: The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface
Author: St. John Hankin

The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

Summary

“The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface”, is a work by St. John Hankin. It explores elements such as Janet, De Mullin and Hester.

Quotes from The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface (St. John Hankin)

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ JANET
(looking curiously at Hester)
Do you want to marry Mr. Brown, Hester?
MRS. CLOUSTON
My dear Janet!
JANET
Well, Aunt Harriet, there’s nothing to be ashamed of if she does. Do you, Hester?
HESTER
Why do you ask such a question?
JANET
Never mind. Only answer it (pause) . You do like him, don’t you?
HESTER
I’ve a great respect for Mr. Brown.
JANET
Don’t blush, my dear. I dare say that’s much the same thing.
HESTER
I won’t talk to you about it. You only sneer. Janet
I wasn’t sneering. Come, Hester, don’t be cross. Why shouldn’t we be friends? ”

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Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ JANET
That’s exactly what I think, father. As we agree about it why make such a fuss?
DE MULLIN
(furious)
Janet....
HESTER
Father, don’t argue with her. It’s no use. (solemnly) Leave her to God.
JANET
Hester, Hester, don’t deceive yourself. In your heart you envy me my baby, and you know it.
HESTER
(indignant)
I do not.
JANET
You do. Time is running on with you, my dear. You’re twenty-eight. Just the age that I was when I met my lover. Yes, my lover. In a few years you will be too old for love, too old to have children. So soon it passeth away and we are gone. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ JANET
But I like it, father.
MRS. CLOUSTON
Like it! A De Mullin like keeping a shop! Impossible.
JANET
(firmly)
Yes, Aunt Harriet, I like it. And I’m proud of it.
DE MULLIN
(sharply)
Nonsense, Janet. Nobody can possibly be proud of keeping a shop.
JANET
I am. I made it, you see. It’s my child, like Johnny.
DE MULLIN
(amazed)
JANET! Do you understand what you’re doing? I offer you the chance of returning to Brendon to live as my daughter.
JANET
(indifferently)
I quite understand, father. And I’m much obliged for the offer. Only I decline it. That’s all. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ MRS. CLOUSTON
(tartly)
Whose fault is that?
JANET
Never mind whose fault it is, Aunt Harriet. The question is, will they see through it or will they not? Of course, they know nothing so far, but I’ve no doubt they suspect. What else have people to do down here but suspect other people? Miss Deanes murmurs her doubts to Mrs. Bulstead and Mrs. Bulstead shakes her head to Miss Deanes. Mrs. Bulstead! What right has she to look down that huge nose of hers at me! She’s had ten children!
MRS. DE MULLIN
JANET! She’s married.
JANET
To Mr. Bulstead! That vulgar animal! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ DE MULLIN
(solemnly)
Listen to me, my girl. You say that now, and I dare say you believe it. But when you are older, when Johnny is grown up, you will bitterly repent having brought into the world a child who can call no man father.
JANET
(passionately)
Never! Never! That I’m sure of. Whatever happens, even if Johnny should come to hate me for what I did, I shall always be glad to have been his mother. At least I shall have lived. These poor women who go through life listless and dull, who have never felt the joys and the pains a mother feels, how they would envy me if they knew! ”

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Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ DE MULLIN
By the right of a father, Janet. By that right I insist on your obedience.
JANET
(losing her temper)
Obedience! Obedience! I owe no one obedience. I am of full age and can order my life as I please. Is a woman never to be considered old enough to manage her own affairs? Is she to go down to her grave everlastingly under tutelage? Is she always to be obeying a father when she’s not obeying a husband? ”

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Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ JANET
My dear boy, I’m extremely human—and therefore curious (pause) . What’s she like, Monty? Now, I mean. She promised to be pretty.
MONTY
She is pretty, I suppose (pause) . I wonder if Bertha and I will ever have a son like Johnny!
JANET
Let’s hope so, Monty. For Bertha’s sake.
MONTY
Isn’t that some one coming? (pause, listens) , I expect it’s she (rising hastily and advancing towards stile) . Is that you, Bertha?
BERTHA
(at stile)
Oh! There you are. Yes. Isn’t it hot? (entering by gate which he opens for her) . Am I punctual? (with a cry) Janet! When did you come home? ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ MRS. DE MULLIN
Sh! Hugo! You mustn’t excite yourself. You know the doctor said...
DE MULLIN
Be quiet, Jane! (turning furiously to Janet) Why am I angry! You disgrace the family. You have a child, that poor fatherless boy....
JANET
(quietly)
Oh come, I could have got along quite well without a father if it comes to that. And so could Hester.
MRS. DE MULLIN
Janet!
JANET
Well, mother, what has father ever done for Hester or me except try and prevent us from doing something we wanted to do? Hester wanted to marry Mr. Brown. Father wouldn’t have allowed her. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ What’s catechism?
BROWN
Come, Johnny, I’m sure your mother has taught you your catechism.. Can you repeat your “Duty towards your Neighbour”? (Johnny shakes his head emphatically) . Try “My duty towards my neighbour....
JOHNNY
Mother says it’s every one’s duty to be healthy and to be happy! Is that what you mean?
BROWN
(scandalized)
No! No!
JOHNNY
Well, that’s what mother taught me.
JANET
(coming to the rescue)
I’m afraid he doesn’t know his catechism yet, Mr. Brown. You see he’s only eight. (Brown bows stiffly.) Run away, Johnny, and play in the garden for a little. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ JANET
(more gently)
I know, mother. But when Hester marries...
HESTER? DE MULLIN JANET
Yes.
DE MULLIN
(turning angrily to his wife)
But whom is Hester going to marry? Is she going to marry? I have heard nothing about this. What’s this, Jane? Has something been kept from me?
MRS. DE MULLIN
No, no, Hugo. Nothing has been kept from you. It’s only some fancy of Janet’s. She thinks Mr. Brown is going to propose to Hester. There’s nothing in it, really.
DE MULLIN
Mr. Brown! Impossible!
MRS. CLOUSTON
Quite impossible! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ MRS. DE MULLIN
Janet!
JANET
(impatiently)
I would. You seem to think there’s some peculiar virtue about always living in the same place. I believe in people uprooting themselves and doing something with their lives. What was the good of the De Mullins going on living down here century after century, always a little poorer and a little poorer, selling a farm here, mortgaging another there, instead of going out into the world to seek their fortunes? We’ve stayed too long in one place, we De Mullins. We shall never be worth anything sleeping away our lives down at Brendon. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ JANET
Are they your friends, Hester? Then I won’t sneer at them. But you can’t call Mr. Brown handsome, can you?
HESTER
Mr. Brown is a very good man and works very hard among the poor. That’s better than being handsome.
JANET
Yes. But less agreeable, isn’t it? However, if you like him there’s an end of it. But he needn’t have begun asking Johnny his catechism the very first time he met him. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ You will be an old woman before your time unless you marry and have children. And what will you do then? Keep a lap-dog, I suppose, or sit up at night with a sick cockatoo like Miss Deanes. Miss Deanes! Even she has a heart somewhere about her. Do you imagine she wouldn’t rather give it to her babies than snivel over poultry? No, Hester, make good use of your youth, my dear. It won’t last always. And once gone it is gone for ever. (Hester bursts into tears.) There, there, Hester! ”

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Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ MRS. DE MULLIN
Janet!
JANET
(exasperated)
Well, mother, do you seriously believe she cares? Or Miss Deanes? Or Miss Rolt? Or any of these people? They only call because they’ve nothing better to do. It’s sheer mental vacuity on their part. Besides, father’s perfectly well now. They know that. But they go on calling, calling! I wonder Miss Deanes doesn’t bring her cockatoo to inquire. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ Claude et Cie was quite the rage that Season. Nobody who was anybody went anywhere else.
MONTY
She must have made a great deal of money.
JANET
On the contrary. She made nothing at all and narrowly escaped bankruptcy.
MONTY
But I don’t understand. If her hats were so dear and everybody bought them?
JANET
Everybody bought them but nobody paid for them. In the highest social circles I believe people never do pay for anything—certainly not for their clothes. At least, nobody paid Miss Hicks, and at the end of six months she was owed £1,200 and hadn’t a penny to pay her rent. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ MRS. DE MULLIN
But as your father would never have consented, dear...
HESTER
(slowly)
Still, I’d rather he had asked me, mother.
JANET
Quite right, Hester! I’m glad you’ve got some wholesome feminine vanity left in your composition. And you’d have said “yes,” like a sensible woman.
HESTER
Oh, you’re always sneering!
JANET
Yes. But I’m going, Hester, going! That’s great thing! Keep your eyes fixed steadily on that and you’ll be able to bear anything else. That reminds me. (Goes to door, l., and calls loudly into the hall.) Johnny! Johnny!
MRS. CLOUSTON
Really, Janet! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ I apologise, Aunt Harriet. (Calls again) Johnny!
MRS. DE MULLIN
Why are you calling Johnny?
JANET
To tell him to put on his hat and coat, mother dear. I’m going to the station.
DE MULLIN
You’re going to-night?
JANET
Yes, father, to-night. I’ve done harm enough down here. I’m going away.
JOHNNY
(entering l.)
Do you want me, Mummie?
JANET
Yes. Run and put on your things and say goodbye to Cook and Ellen and tell Robert to put in the pony. Mother’s going back to London.
JOHNNY
Are we going now, Mummie?
JANET
(nods)
As fast as the train can carry us. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ To know that a child is your very own, is a part of you. That you have faced sickness and pain and death itself for it. That it is yours and nothing can take it from you because no one can understand its wants as you do. To feel it’s soft breath on your cheek, to soothe it when it is fretful and still it when it cries, that is motherhood and that is glorious! ”

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Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ If one is in a shop it doesn’t matter how one dresses.
JANET
On the contrary if one is in a shop it matters a great deal. A girl in a shop must dress well. The business demands it. If you ever start a hat-shop, Aunt Harriet, you’ll have to dress very differently. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ HESTER
(frostily)
It looks very expensive.
JANET
(looking at it critically)
Yes, I own I’m rather pleased with it.
MRS. CLOUSTON
(acidly)
You seem to be able to dress very well altogether, in spite of the shop.
JANET
(correcting her)
Because of it, Aunt Harriet. That’s the advantage of being what is called “in trade.” If I were a school teacher or a governess or something genteel of that kind I could only afford to dress like a pauper. But as I keep a shop I can dress like a lady. Clothes are a question of money, after all, aren’t they? ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ JANET
(grimly)
No, Hester. I don’t think that. To do as I did needs pluck and brains—and five hundred pounds. Everything most women haven’t got, poor things. So they must marry or remain childless. You must marry—the next curate. I suppose the Bulsteads will buy Mr. Brown a living as he’s marrying the plainest of the daughters. It’s the least they can do. But that’s no reason why I should marry unless I choose.
MRS. CLOUSTON
Well, I’ve never heard of anything so disgraceful. I thought Janet at least had the grace to be ashamed of what she did! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ Johnny disappears into the wood. Janet falls into a brown study. Presently a footstep is heard coming along the roady but she seems to notice nothing. Then a young man climbs over the stile. He starts as he sees her and draws back, then advances eagerly, holding out his hand. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ BROWN
What a pity!
HESTER
Yes. Father says England has never been the same since the repeal of the Corn laws. (Enter Mrs. De Mullin and Mrs. Clouston by the door on the left, followed by Dr. Rolt.) Here is mother—and Aunt Harriet.
Mrs. De Mullin, poor lady, is a crushed, timid creature of fifty-eight or so, entirely dominated by the De Mullin fetish and quite unable to hold her own against either her husband or her sister-in-law, a hardmouthed, resolute woman of sixty. Even Hester she finds almost too much for her. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ JANET
Oh no. Why should I be teaching?
MRS. CLOUSTON
Jane said you wanted to teach at one time.
JANET
That was years ago. Before I left Brendon. soon gave up that idea. No. I keep a shop.
MRS. CLOUSTON
A shop!
JANET
Yes. A hat-shop
MRS. CLOUSTON
Good heavens! A De Mullin in a hat-shop!
JANET
(a little maliciously)
Not a De Mullin, Aunt Harriet. A Seagrave.
MRS. CLOUSTON
Did Mr. Seagrave keep a hat-shop?
JANET
Mr. Seagrave?... oh, I see. No. It’s not a man’s hat shop. It’s a lady’s (takes off hat) . This is one of ours. What do you think of it, Hester? ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ You have brought shame upon your parents and shame upon your son, and that shame you can never wipe out. If you had in you a spark of human feeling, if you were not worthless and heartless you would blush to look me in the face or your child in the face. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ De Mullin goes of through the forest.
JOHNNY
Where’s grandmother going, Mummie?
JANET
Up to the big house.
JOHNNY
What big house?
JANET
Brendon Park.
JOHNNY
Mayn’t I go up to the big house too?
JANET
No, dear. You’re to stay with mother.
JOHNNY
Who lives at the big house?
JANET
Nobody you know, dear.
JOHNNY
That’s why I asked, Mummie.
JANET
Well, don’t ask any more, sonny. Mother’s rather tired. Run away and play, there’s a good boy. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ But just as it looked as if it was all over with Claude et Cie a capitalist came to the rescue. I was the capitalist.
MONTY
You?
JANET
Yes. I’d an old Aunt once who was fond of me and left me a legacy when I was seventeen. Four hundred pounds.
MONTY
That wouldn’t go very far.
JANET
Four hundred pounds goes a longish way towards setting up a shop. Besides, it was nearly five hundred by that time. My shares had gone up. Well, I and my five hundred pounds came to the rescue. I paid the rent and the most clamorous of the creditors, and Miss Hicks and I became partners. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ JANET
Yes, a hat-shop, in Regent Street. My dear Monty, don’t gape like that. Hat-shops are perfectly respectable places. Almost too respectable to judge by the fuss two of them made about employing me. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ Somebody else is engaged to be married, (to Janet) Who do you think?
JANET
I’ve no idea.
MISS DEANES
Bertha Aldenham—to Mr. Bulstead.
JANET
(starts)
Mr. Bulstead?
MISS DEANES
Yes. But I forgot. You wouldn’t know them. They didn’t come here till long after you went away. They bought Brendon Park from the Malcolms three years ago. You remember the Malcolms, Janet? Janet (whose attention has wandered)
Eh? Oh yes, of course.
MRS. CLOUSTON
Which Mr. Bulstead is it? The eldest?
MISS DEANES
Yes. Montague.
JANET
(under her breath)
Monty Bulstead! Engaged! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ JANET
(cheerfully)
It was a risk, of course. But everything in life is a risk, isn’t it? And it succeeded, as I felt sure it would. We’re quite a prosperous concern nowadays, and I go over to Paris four times a year to see the latest fashions. That, my dear Monty, is the history of Claude et Cie. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ He and Bertha haven’t taken long to settle things, have they?
JANET
No, they haven’t taken long.
MISS DEANES
But I dare say he will live here when he’s married. As the Bulsteads are so rich.- The father makes frilling and lace and so on. All those things people used to make so much better by hand. And Bertha may not care about army life. I know I shouldn’t. (Janet smiles discreetly.) It’s not always very nice, is it?
BROWN
(to Johnny who has been staring at him roundeyed across the room, with heavy geniality) . ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

St. John Hankin, The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface

“ The only form of independence that is possible or desirable for a woman is that she shall be dependent upon her husband or, if she is unmarried, on her nearest male relative. I am sure you agree with me, Harriet? ”

St. John Hankin

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Quotes from The Last of the De Mullins: A Play Without a Preface (St. John Hankin)

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