MANGAN. But a goods train. MRS HUSHABYE. Not on our little line. They tack a truck on to the passenger train. What can it have been, Hector? HECTOR. Heaven's threatening growl of disgust at us useless futile creatures. [Fiercely]. I tell you, one of two things must happen. Either out of that darkness some new creation will come to supplant us as we have supplanted the animals, or the heavens will fall in thunder and destroy us. LADY UTTERWORD [in a cool instructive manner, wallowing comfortably in her hammock]. We have not supplanted the animals, Hector. Why do you ask heaven to destroy this house, which could be made quite comfortable if Hesione had any notion of how to live? Don't you know what is wrong with it? HECTOR. We are wrong with it. There is no sense in us. We are useless, dangerous, and ought to be abolished. LADY UTTERWORD. Nonsense! Hastings told me the very first day he came here, nearly twenty-four years ago, what is wrong with the house. CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. What! The numskull said there was something wrong with my house! LADY UTTERWORD. I said Hastings said it; and he is not in the least a numskull. CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. What's wrong with my house? LADY UTTERWORD. Just what is wrong with a ship, papa. Wasn't it clever of Hastings to see that? CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. The man's a fool. There's nothing wrong with a ship. LADY UTTERWORD. Yes, there is. MRS HUSHABYE. But what is it? Don't be aggravating, Addy. LADY UTTERWORD. Guess. HECTOR. Demons. Daughters of the witch of Zanzibar. Demons. LADY UTTERWORD. Not a bit. I assure you, all this house needs to make it a sensible, healthy, pleasant house, with good appetites and sound sleep in it, is horses. MRS HUSHABYE. Horses! What rubbish! LADY UTTERWORD. Yes: horses. Why have we never been able to let this house? Because there are no proper stables. Go anywhere in England where there are natural, wholesome, contented, and really nice English people; and what do you always find? That the stables are the real centre of the household; and that if any visitor wants to play the piano the whole room has to be upset before it can be opened, there are so many things piled on it. I never lived until I learned to ride; and I shall never ride really well because I didn't begin as a child. There are only two classes in good society in England: the equestrian classes and the neurotic classes. It isn't mere convention: everybody can see that the people who hunt are the right people and the people who don't are the wrong ones. CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. There is some truth in this. My ship made a man of me; and a ship is the horse of the sea. LADY UTTERWORD. Exactly how Hastings explained your being a gentleman. CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. Not bad for a numskull. Bring the man here with you next time: I must talk to him.