REGINA. [Stamps.] Stop your swearing!
ENGSTRAND. Hush, hush; you're right enough there, my girl. What I wanted
to say was just this--I've laid by a very tidy pile from this Orphanage
job.
REGINA. Have you? That's a good thing for you.
ENGSTRAND. What can a man spend his ha'pence on here in this country
hole?
REGINA. Well, what then?
ENGSTRAND. Why, you see, I thought of putting the money into some paying
speculation. I thought of a sort of a sailor's tavern--
REGINA. Pah!
ENGSTRAND. A regular high-class affair, of course; not any sort of
pig-sty for common sailors. No! damn it! it would be for captains and
mates, and--and--regular swells, you know.
REGINA. And I was to--?
ENGSTRAND. You were to help, to be sure. Only for the look of the thing,
you understand. Devil a bit of hard work shall you have, my girl. You
shall do exactly what you like.
REGINA. Oh, indeed!
ENGSTRAND. But there must be a petticoat in the house; that's as clear
as daylight. For I want to have it a bit lively like in the evenings,
with singing and dancing, and so on. You must remember they're weary
wanderers on the ocean of life. [Nearer.] Now don't be a fool and
stand in your own light, Regina. What's to become of you out here? Your
mistress has given you a lot of learning; but what good is that to you?
You're to look after the children at the new Orphanage, I hear. Is that
the sort of thing for you, eh? Are you so dead set on wearing your life
out for a pack of dirty brats?
REGINA. No; if things go as I want them to--Well there's no
saying--there's no saying.
ENGSTRAND. What do you mean by "there's no saying"?
REGINA. Never you mind.--How much money have you saved?
ENGSTRAND. What with one thing and another, a matter of seven or
eight hundred crowns. [A "krone" is equal to one shilling and
three-halfpence.]
REGINA. That's not so bad.
ENGSTRAND. It's enough to make a start with, my girl.
REGINA. Aren't you thinking of giving me any?
ENGSTRAND. No, I'm blest if I am!
REGINA. Not even of sending me a scrap of stuff for a new dress?
ENGSTRAND. Come to town with me, my lass, and you'll soon get dresses
enough.
REGINA. Pooh! I can do that on my own account, if I want to.
ENGSTRAND. No, a father's guiding hand is what you want, Regina. Now,
I've got my eye on a capital house in Little Harbour Street. They don't
want much ready-money; and it could be a sort of a Sailors' Home, you
know.
REGINA. But I will not live with you! I have nothing whatever to do with
you. Be off!
ENGSTRAND. You wouldn't stop long with me, my girl. No such luck! If
you knew how to play your cards, such a fine figure of a girl as you've
grown in the last year or two--
REGINA. Well?