Don't be vicious, father.
HOBSON. Will Mossop, I'm sorry for you. (_Over banisters_.)
Take you for all in all, you're the best of the bunch. You're a
backward lad, but you know your trade and it's an honest one.
(HOBSON _is going up the stairs_.)
ALICE. So does my Albert know his trade. (_Goes_ R. C.)
HOBSON (_half-way up-stairs_). I'll grant you that. He knows
his trade. He's good at robbery. (ALICE _shows great
indignation_.) And I've to have it on my conscience that my
daughter's wed a lawyer and an employer of lawyers.
VICKEY. It didn't worry your conscience to keep us serving in the
shop at no wages.
HOBSON. I kept you, didn't I? It's some one else's job to victual
you in future. Aye, you may grin, you two, but girls don't live
on air. Your penny buns 'ull cost you tuppence now--and more.
Wait, till the families begin to come. Don't come to me for keep,
that's all. (_Going_.)
ALICE. Father!
HOBSON (_turning_). Aye. You may father me. But that's a
piece of work I've finished with. I've done with fathering, and
they're beginning it. They'll know what marrying a woman means
before so long. They're putting chains upon themselves and I have
thrown the shackles off. I've suffered thirty years and more and
I'm a free man from to-day.
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