er that you are in my house.

ELLIE. Stuff! Why don't you mind your own business? What is it to you
whether I choose to marry Mangan or not?

MRS HUSHABYE. Do you suppose you can bully me, you miserable little
matrimonial adventurer?

ELLIE. Every woman who hasn't any money is a matrimonial adventurer.
It's easy for you to talk: you have never known what it is to want
money; and you can pick up men as if they were daisies. I am poor and
respectable--

MRS HUSHABYE [interrupting]. Ho! respectable! How did you pick up
Mangan? How did you pick up my husband? You have the audacity to tell me
that I am a--a--a--

ELLIE. A siren. So you are. You were born to lead men by the nose: if
you weren't, Marcus would have waited for me, perhaps.

MRS HUSHABYE [suddenly melting and half laughing]. Oh, my poor Ellie, my
pettikins, my unhappy darling! I am so sorry about Hector. But what can
I do? It's not my fault: I'd give him to you if I could.

ELLIE. I don't blame you for that.

MRS HUSHABYE. What a brute I was to quarrel with you and call you names!
Do kiss me and say you're not angry with me.

ELLIE [fiercely]. Oh, don't slop and gush and be sentimental. Don't you
see that unless I can be hard--as hard as nails--I shall go mad? I don't
care a damn about your calling me names: do you think a woman in my
situation can feel a few hard words?

MRS HUSHABYE. Poor little woman! Poor little situation!

ELLIE. I suppose you think you're being sympathetic. You are just
foolish and stupid and selfish. You see me getting a smasher right in
the face that kills a whole part of my life: the best part that can
never come again; and you think you can help me over it by a little
coaxing and kissing. When I want all the strength I can get to lean on:
something iron, something stony, I don't care how cruel it is, you
go all mushy and want to slobber over me. I'm not angry; I'm not
unfriendly; but for God's sake do pull yourself together; and don't
think that because you're on velvet and always have been, women who are
in hell can take it as easily as you.

MRS HUSHABYE [shrugging her shoulders]. Very well. [She sits down on the
sofa in her old place.] But I warn you that when I am neither coaxing and
kissing nor laughing, I am just wondering how much longer I can stand
living in this cruel, damnable world. You object to the siren: well,
I drop the siren. You want to rest your wounded bosom against a
grindstone. Well [folding her arms]