Act I

HEARTBREAK HOUSE

ACT I

The hilly country in the middle of the north edge of Sussex,
looking very pleasant on a fine evening at the end of September,
is seen through the windows of a room which has been built so as
to resemble the after part of an old-fashioned high-pooped ship,
with a stern gallery; for the windows are ship built with heavy
timbering, and run right across the room as continuously as the
stability of the wall allows. A row of lockers under the windows
provides an unupholstered windowseat interrupted by twin glass
doors, respectively halfway between the stern post and the sides.
Another door strains the illusion a little by being apparently in
the ship's port side, and yet leading, not to the open sea, but
to the entrance hall of the house. Between this door and the
stern gallery are bookshelves. There are electric light switches
beside the door leading to the hall and the glass doors in the
stern gallery. Against the starboard wall is a carpenter's bench.
The vice has a board in its jaws; and the floor is littered with
shavings, overflowing from a waste-paper basket. A couple of
planes and a centrebit are on the bench. In the same wall,
between the bench and the windows, is a narrow doorway with a
half door, above which a glimpse of the room beyond shows that it
is a shelved pantry with bottles and kitchen crockery.

On the starboard side, but close to the middle, is a plain oak
drawing-table with drawing-board, T-square, straightedges, set
squares, mathematical instruments, saucers of water color, a
tumbler of discolored water, Indian ink, pencils, and brushes on
it. The drawing-board is set so that the draughtsman's chair has
the window on its left hand. On the floor at the end of the
table, on its right, is a ship's fire bucket. On the port side of
the room, near the bookshelves, is a sofa with its back to the
windows. It is a sturdy mahogany article, oddly upholstered in
sailcloth, including the bolster, with a couple of blankets
hanging over the back. Between the sofa and the drawing-table is
a big wicker chair, with broad arms and a low sloping back, with
its back to the light. A small but stout table of teak, with a
round top and gate legs, stands against the port wall between the
door and the bookcase. It is the only article in the room that
suggests (not at all convincingly) a woman's hand in the
furnishing. The uncarpeted floor of narrow boards is caulked and
holystoned like a deck.

The garden to which the glass doors lead dips to the south before
the landscape rises again to the hills. Emerging from the hollow
is the cupola of an observatory. Between the observatory and the
house is a flagstaff on a little esplanade, with a hammock on the