Shooting Livien

- I am asking you to be my wife. - I know.

My letter's about Howards End.

We ought to go and see the place sometime.

Oh! Well, I took you for Ruth Wilcox!

If we can't live at Howards End and you don't want to live in Ducie Street,

- where do you propose we live? - Oniton.

I do not intend to forget these Schlegels in a hurry.

I find them monopolising my father. I intend to put my foot down!

They're starving! I found them starving!

Dempster's Bank reduced their staff, and now he's penniless.

- Helen, are you mad? - I want to see Mr Wilcox.

I will talk to Henry in my own way.

Don't take up that sentimental attitude over the poor.

I mean to dislike your husband, and tell him so.

Henceforward I am going my own way.

Madam, you'll be more comfortable at the hotel...

Why, it's Henry!

I believe in personal responsibility, don't you?

- So that woman has been your mistress? - Ten years ago.

I have the honour to release you from your engagement.

"My dearest boy...

"..this is not to part us.

"It is everything or nothing, and I mean it to be nothing.

"It happened long before we met and, even if it had happened since,

"I should be writing the same, I hope.

"I do understand."

"Dear Mr Bast, I have spoken to Mr Wilcox about you,

"and am sorry to say he has no vacancy for you.

"Yours truly, MJ Schlegel."

"Helen, give him this. The Basts are no good.

"I've had a room got up for you here,

"and will you please come round on getting this?

"I may go round to the Basts myself in the morning

"and do anything that is fair. M."

SHE RINGS BELL

Henry, dear?

Henry, dear, look at me.

No, I won't have you shirking. Look at me.

There. That's all.

You're referring to last evening.

I have released you from your engagement.

I could find excuses, but I won't.

No, I won't.

It must be left at that.

Leave it where you will, my boy.

It's not going to trouble us.

I know what I'm talking about. It will make no difference.

No difference?

No difference, when you find that I am not the fellow you thought?

I am not worthy of you.

Had I been worthy, I, er...

I can't bear to talk of such things.

We had better leave it.

You and your sheltered life and your...

..refined pursuits, friends, books.

You and your sister, women like you,

how can you guess the temptations that lie around a man? I know...

..by bitter experience, and yet...

- ..you say it makes no difference. - Not to me.

HE LAUGHS BITTERLY

Am I the last one down?

Did Helen come?

She didn't send any messages or anything?

None that I've heard.

Will you ring the bell, please?

What to do?

Why, to inquire.

There is no bell. The bell-pull is broken.

There wasn't time to fix it. I've brought a little...gong.

Have you?

Yes. It's here.

HE TAPS GONG

Did you bring it from London?

Yes.

Where did you find it?

Dolly picked it up at Harrods.

No doubt you find our pretensions amusing.

I don't. You mustn't think of me that way.

You're certainly at liberty to dictate terms.

You mustn't talk to me like that, either.

I am scarcely in a position to argue.

But you are.

KNOCK ON DOOR

Sir?

Please, Mr Burton, have you discovered,

did my sister stop here last night?

No, Miss.

Miss Schlegel slept at The George in the village, so as far as I've heard.

May I send someone to inquire? Or I could go round myself.

I'll go. Thank you, Burton.

It's a very simple story.

Ten years ago in a garrison town in Cyprus...

..I was far from good influences - far even from England.

I was very, very lonely, and longed to hear a woman's voice.

That's enough. I have said too much already for you to forgive me now.

But I've already forgiven you, Henry.

Tibby?

Yes? What is it?

It's I, Tibby.

Helen? Come in! Qing jinlai!

I got your telegram. I hadn't...

Shall I serve lunch now?

- Oh, rather. - Very good, sir.

Are you all right? I didn't know where you got to.

Yes, very well.

What did you say to me when I came in?

I? Oh, um, "Qing jinlai."

It's Chinese for, "Come in, please."

There are five ways to say "come in", actually.

If you leave off the "qing", it's simply "come in" without the "please". Or nearly.

Then there's, "Qing jinlai ba!"

Tibby!

You look rather a fright. Anything wrong?

- I've come from Oniton. - Oniton? But I thought...

I've come from Oniton. There has been a great deal of trouble there.

Who's for lunch?

I don't know what's to be done, Tibby.

I'm very much upset at a piece of news that concerns Meg,

and do not want to face her.

I stopped here to tell you this.

I mean to go to Munich or Bonn.

As regards my share of the furniture,

you and she are to do exactly as you like.

- But... - My head is rather wretched.

Has anything gone wrong at Evie's wedding?

Not there.

KNOCK ON DOOR

That's Annie with the cutlets. They rather spoil by waiting.

- Do you mind her coming in? Or I can get them from her at the door. - Could I bathe my eyes, Tibby?

Annie, can you come back in a moment?

Very good, sir. Are you quite well, Miss Helen?

Yes, quite well, Annie, thank you.

Leonard knew about it all along.

Meg cannot have heard it yet, I think. Let them marry.

There remains the question of compensation.

I don't see who is to pay it if I don't.

This part is in confidence. Meg must not hear about it.

As soon as possible, I am placing £5,000 to your account and,

when I am in Germany, you will pay it over to Leonard and Mrs Bast.

Good God alive!

What's the good of driblets?

To go through life, having done one thing,

to have raised one person from the abyss.

No doubt people will think me extraordinary.

I don't give a damn what people think,

but it is half of what you have.

Not nearly half. I have far too much.

What I give will bring in 115 between two to live on.

It isn't enough. I didn't expect you to understand me.

I? I understand no-one.

But you'll do it?

Apparently.

Oh, thank you, Tibbykins. You have been very good to me.

"Mr Theobald Schlegel, 2 Wickham Place.

"While mindful of the generosity which prompted her kind offer,

"I enclose Miss Schlegel's cheque for £5,000

"being in no need of money, and beg you return it to her."

"Dear Helen,

"Mr Bast has returned me your cheque,

"for which he claims he has no need."

"Dear Tibby, in that case, you must go to South London yourself,

"and you must find the Basts and make them take the cheque."

THEY SPEAK IN GERMAN

"Dear Helen, after taking a great deal of trouble to hunt up

"your client's domicile in Lambeth,

"I have tried time and again to find Mr Bast and his wife,

"but they seem to have disappeared off the face of the Earth.

"I must admit, in the fullness of my heart,

"that, considering the temptation offered him,

"your Leonard Bast seems to me a monumental person after all."

"Dear Tibby, you must find them.

"It is insupportable that they should be homeless

"and that I should be the cause."

"Dear Helen, it's no use.

"I'm afraid you'll have to abandon your philanthropic venture

"and reinvest your money in some sensible concern.

"On the advice of our new future brother-in-law,

"I myself have lately bought shares in the Nottingham and Derby Railway

"and consequently become rather richer than I was before.

"I suggest you do the same. Tibby."

CHURCH BELLS TOLL

"Dearest Helen, Henry and I were married Tuesday.

"Tibby and Aunt Juley were there, also Charles and Mr Cahill,

"to represent the Wilcoxes.

"After Oniton, I didn't mind the smallness of the ceremony,

"but I did wish my dear Helen had been there as well.

"Henry and I wonder about coming to visit you in Innsbruck.

"I'm really longing to meet you if you're stopping there still.

"Dear Meg, I plan on leaving for Lake Garda,

"where I mean to stop for a few weeks.

"But I'm afraid my plans are uncertain and had better be ignored."

"Although I shall most likely be spending the summer in Italy,

"possibly Naples. H."

What an unsatisfactory postcard.

Do you know? I believe she fled Innsbruck

because we suggested coming there.

I suppose she dislikes meeting you.

I am sorry for that. Certainly, I bear her no ill will.

Why should you not? She's lost all self-control. It's maddening!

And not like her, Henry.