y what I
like to. I know you are fond of me. Sit down. [She draws him to the
sofa].

CAPTAIN SHOTOVER [yielding]. Take care: I am in my dotage. Old men are
dangerous: it doesn't matter to them what is going to happen to the
world.

They sit side by side on the sofa. She leans affectionately against him
with her head on his shoulder and her eyes half closed.

ELLIE [dreamily]. I should have thought nothing else mattered to
old men. They can't be very interested in what is going to happen to
themselves.

CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. A man's interest in the world is only the overflow
from his interest in himself. When you are a child your vessel is not
yet full; so you care for nothing but your own affairs. When you grow
up, your vessel overflows; and you are a politician, a philosopher, or
an explorer and adventurer. In old age the vessel dries up: there is
no overflow: you are a child again. I can give you the memories of my
ancient wisdom: mere scraps and leavings; but I no longer really care
for anything but my own little wants and hobbies. I sit here working
out my old ideas as a means of destroying my fellow-creatures. I see my
daughters and their men living foolish lives of romance and sentiment
and snobbery. I see you, the younger generation, turning from their
romance and sentiment and snobbery to money and comfort and hard common
sense. I was ten times happier on the bridge in the typhoon, or frozen
into Arctic ice for months in darkness, than you or they have ever been.
You are looking for a rich husband. At your age I looked for hardship,
danger, horror, and death, that I might feel the life in me more
intensely. I did not let the fear of death govern my life; and my reward
was, I had my life. You are going to let the fear of poverty govern your
life; and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.

ELLIE [sitting up impatiently]. But what can I do? I am not a sea
captain: I can't stand on bridges in typhoons, or go slaughtering
seals and whales in Greenland's icy mountains. They won't let women be
captains. Do you want me to be a stewardess?

CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. There are worse lives. The stewardesses could come
ashore if they liked; but they sail and sail and sail.

ELLIE. What could they do ashore but marry for money? I don't want to be
a stewardess: I am too bad a sailor. Think of something else for me.

CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. I can't think so long and continuously. I am too old.
I must go in and