CTOR [gravely]. Miss Dunn, you can do no good here. We of this house
are only moths flying into the candle. You had better go down to the
cellar.

ELLIE [scornfully]. I don't think.

MAZZINI. Ellie, dear, there is no disgrace in going to the cellar. An
officer would order his soldiers to take cover. Mr Hushabye is behaving
like an amateur. Mangan and the burglar are acting very sensibly; and it
is they who will survive.

ELLIE. Let them. I shall behave like an amateur. But why should you run
any risk?

MAZZINI. Think of the risk those poor fellows up there are running!

NURSE GUINNESS. Think of them, indeed, the murdering blackguards! What
next?

A terrific explosion shakes the earth. They reel back into their seats,
or clutch the nearest support. They hear the falling of the shattered
glass from the windows.

MAZZINI. Is anyone hurt?

HECTOR. Where did it fall?

NURSE GUINNESS [in hideous triumph]. Right in the gravel pit: I seen
it. Serve un right! I seen it [she runs away towards the gravel pit,
laughing harshly].

HECTOR. One husband gone.

CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. Thirty pounds of good dynamite wasted.

MAZZINI. Oh, poor Mangan!

HECTOR. Are you immortal that you need pity him? Our turn next.

They wait in silence and intense expectation. Hesione and Ellie hold
each other's hand tight.

A distant explosion is heard.

MRS HUSHABYE [relaxing her grip]. Oh! they have passed us.

LADY UTTERWORD. The danger is over, Randall. Go to bed.

CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. Turn in, all hands. The ship is safe. [He sits down
and goes asleep].

ELLIE [disappointedly]. Safe!

HECTOR [disgustedly]. Yes, safe. And how damnably dull the world has
become again suddenly! [he sits down].

MAZZINI [sitting down]. I was quite wrong, after all. It is we who have
survived; and Mangan and the burglar--

HECTOR. --the two burglars--

LADY UTTERWORD. --the two practical men of business--

MAZZINI. --both gone. And the poor clergyman will have to get a new
house.

MRS HUSHABYE. But what a glorious experience! I hope they'll come again
tomorrow night.

ELLIE [radiant at the prospect]. Oh, I hope so.

Randall at last succeeds in keeping the home fires burning on his flute.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Heartbreak House, by George Bernard Shaw

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