The Skin Game | Page 8

MRS. H. We certainly like people to keep their word, Mr. Hornblower.
HILLCRIST. Amy!
HORNBLOWER. Never mind, Hillcrist; takes more than that to upset
me.
[MRS. HILLCRIST exchanges a look with DAWKER who slips out
unobserved.]
HILLCRIST. You promised me, you know, not to change the
tenancies.
HORNBLOWER. Well, I've come to tell ye that I have. I wasn't
expecting to have the need when I bought. Thought the Duke would
sell me a bit down there; but devil a bit he will; and now I must have
those cottages for my workmen. I've got important works, ye know.
HILLCRIST. [Getting heated] The Jackmans have their importance too,
sir. Their heart's in that cottage.
HORNBLOWER. Have a sense of proportion, man. My works supply
thousands of people, and my, heart's in them. What's more, they make
my fortune. I've got ambitions--I'm a serious man. Suppose I were to
consider this and that, and every little potty objection-- where should I
get to?--nowhere!
HILLCRIST. All the same, this sort of thing isn't done, you know.
HORNBLOWER. Not by you because ye've got no need to do it. Here
ye are, quite content on what your fathers made for ye. Ye've no
ambitions; and ye want other people to have none. How d'ye think your
fathers got your land?
HILLCRIST. [Who has risen] Not by breaking their word.
HORNBLOWER. [Throwing out his, finger] Don't ye believe it. They
got it by breaking their word and turnin' out Jackmans, if that's their
name, all over the place.
MRS. H. That's an insult, Mr. Hornblower.
HORNBLOWER. No; it's a repartee. If ye think so much of these
Jackmans, build them a cottage yourselves; ye've got the space.
HILLCRIST. That's beside the point. You promised me, and I sold on
that understanding.

HORNBLOWER. And I bought on the understandin' that I'd get some
more land from the Duke.
HILLCRIST. That's nothing to do with me.
HORNBLOWER. Ye'll find it has; because I'm going to have those
cottages.
HILLCRIST. Well, I call it simply----
[He checks himself.]
HORNBLOWER. Look here, Hillcrist, ye've not had occasion to
understand men like me. I've got the guts, and I've got the money; and I
don't sit still on it. I'm going ahead because I believe in meself. I've no
use for sentiment and that sort of thing. Forty of your Jackmans aren't
worth me little finger.
HILLCRIST. [Angry] Of all the blatant things I ever heard said!
HORNBLOWER. Well, as we're speaking plainly, I've been thinkin'.
Ye want the village run your oldfashioned way, and I want it run mine.
I fancy there's not room for the two of us here.
MRS. H. When are you going?
HORNBLOWER. Never fear, I'm not going.
HILLCRIST. Look here, Mr. Hornblower--this infernal gout makes me
irritable--puts me at a disadvantage. But I should be glad if you'd
kindly explain yourself.
HORNBLOWER. [With a great smile] Ca' canny; I'm fra' the North.
HILLCRIST. I'm told you wish to buy the Centry and put more of your
chimneys up there, regardless of the fact [He Points through the
window] that it would utterly ruin the house we've had for generations,
and all our pleasure here.
HORNBLOWER. How the man talks! Why! Ye'd think he owned the
sky, because his fathers built him a house with a pretty view, where
he's nothing to do but live. It's sheer want of something to do that gives
ye your fine sentiments, Hillcrist.
HILLCRIST. Have the goodness not to charge me with idleness.
Dawker--where is he?----[He shows the bureau] When you do the
drudgery of your works as thoroughly as I do that of my estate---- Is it
true about the Centry?
HORNBLOWER. Gospel true. If ye want to know, my son Chearlie is
buyin' it this very minute.
MRS. H. [Turning with a start] What do you say?

HORNBLOWER. Ay, he's with the old lady she wants to sell, an' she'll
get her price, whatever it is.
HILLCRIST. [With deep anger] If that isn't a skin game, Mr.
Hornblower, I don't know what is.
HORNBLOWER. Ah! Ye've got a very nice expression there. "Skin
game!" Well, bad words break no bones, an' they're wonderful for
hardenin' the heart. If it wasn't for a lady's presence, I could give ye a
specimen or two.
MRS. H. Oh! Mr. Hornblower, that need not stop you, I'm sure.
HORNBLOWER. Well, and I don't know that it need. Ye're an
obstruction--the like of you--ye're in my path. And anyone in my path
doesn't stay there long; or, if he does, he stays there on my terms. And
my terms are chimneys in the Centry where I need 'em. It'll do ye a
power of good, too, to know that ye're not almighty.
HILLCRIST. And that's being neighbourly!
HORNBLOWER. And how have ye tried