HOWARDS END (excerpt) by E.M. Forster, adapted by Caroline Hewitt

Scene 9 (Wickham Place) AUNT JULEY (peering through binoculars) Oh, Margaret look! Those horrible Wilcoxes—you remember that nonsense with Helen and their son—have taken one of the furnished flats just across the street. (reading a calling card) “Mrs. Ruth Wilcox.” She called yesterday and that housemaid of yours has only just now alerted me.

MARGARET Oh dear, I’ve been meaning to find someone new.

AUNT JULEY A cloud is passing over poor Helen’s life entirely.

MARGARET Helen has plenty of other things to think about. Look here; let’s do the flowers.

AUNT JULEY But she may meet that ‘Paul’ in the street. Helen must be very careful, Margaret.

(HELEN enters) HELEN Careful about what?

MARGARET Nothing.

HELEN Careful about what, Aunt Juley?

AUNT JULEY It is only that a certain family, whom we know by name but do not mention, have taken the flat opposite—where the plants are in the balcony.

HELEN (laughing) Oh, Aunt Juley, don’t be silly, I don’t— (she blushes) MARGARET Helen, you don’t mind them coming, do you?

HELEN (too quickly) Of course I don’t mind.

(HELEN goes) AUNT JULEY Helen cannot deceive me. She does mind.

MARGARET Oh, hush.

AUNT JULEY Such awful coarse-grained people! Impossible to look at the window! Impossible even to speak.

You can’t risk it!

MARGARET No risk is all that serious as long as you have money.

AUNT JULEY What has money to do with the Wilcoxes living next door?

MARGARET Helen bought a train ticket to escape Howards End and Paul could easily have driven away in his father’s motorcar. If neither had the money for such things, their lives might have taken a far different turn, with consequences that we can only guess at. We forget, as we sit on our islands of wealth, far above the waters of need, that most people remain submerged, hoping to hold their breath long enough not to drown.

AUNT JULEY But you couldn’t possibly say such things to the Wilcoxes!

MARGARET Heavens no! The bounty of the British Empire must be celebrated, but only at the bank, never in the drawing room. I am tired of rich people who pretend to be poor, as if denying their wealth makes them more deserving of it. (small pause) Circumstance is only luck by another name!

AUNT JULEY Oh dear, that sounds like socialism!

MARGARET Thank you Aunt Juley, while I have expounded, you have done the flowers.

AUNT JULEY Not at all, dear. I wish you would let me help you in more important matters.

MARGARET Well then, would you be very kind and come with me to see about hiring a new housemaid?

(HELEN comes back in) MARGARET Aunt Juley and I are going to the registry office. Will you come?

HELEN I’d prefer to stay here and annoy Tibby, thanks.

AUNT JULEY As you like, dear. (Aside to MARGARET) You see? She will never leave the house again!

(AUNT JULEY goes) MARGARET Helen, you must tell me whether the W.s becoming our neighbors worries you.

HELEN Of course not, Meg. Cousin Frieda’s just written and asked me to Germany and I shan’t be home until after the New Year.

MARGARET I should be bored, I think, if you fell in love with the same man twice.

HELEN I swear to you Meg that never, nowhere, and no-how, will I again love any of the Wilcox family.

Not a cousin’s cousin’s cousin shall be loved by me!

Scene 10 (Wickham Place, then the Wilcox’s apartment) MARGARET Dear Mrs. Wilcox, I received your calling card. My sister no longer occupies her thoughts with your son, but it would not be fair to either of them if we met, and it is therefore right that our acquaintance, which began so pleasantly, should end. Believe me, yours truly, M. Schlegel MRS. WILCOX Dear Miss Schlegel, You should not have written me such a letter. I called to tell you that Paul has gone abroad. Ruth Wilcox (MARGARET crosses the street, enters the Wilcox apartment, MRS. WILCOX is in bed) MARGARET Oh, Mrs. Wilcox, I’ve just received your letter. I am more ashamed than I can say. I knew that Paul was going to India but I forgot when.

MRS. WILCOX He sailed on the 17th for Nigeria, in Africa.

MARGARET My note was rude. I hope that you will forgive me. My sister has gone to Germany, so there was not even that excuse.

MRS. WILCOX She gone as well. Yes, certainly, it is quite safe—safe, absolutely, now.

MARGARET I have been wanting to ask you: how did you know that Helen and Paul— MRS. WILCOX There is nothing to be gained by discussing that.

MARGARET Shall I say good-bye now? You will be getting up.

MRS. WILCOX No—please stay—I am taking a day in bed. Mr. Wilcox is away on business, my daughter Evie is at a lawn tennis tournament, and Charles, my elder son, and his new bride Dolly, are on their honeymoon in Naples.

MARGARET Lucky people!

MRS. WILCOX I can hardly imagine Charles in Italy!

MARGARET Doesn’t he care for traveling abroad?

MRS. WILCOX He likes travel, but he doesn’t care for foreigners. What he most enjoys is a motor tour in England—his father gave him a car of his own for a wedding present, which for the time being is stored at Howards End. My husband Henry built a garage there, to the west of the house, not far from the wych-elm.

MARGARET Helen spoke of the wych-elm as a very splendid tree.

MRS. WILCOX It is the finest wych-elm in Hertfordshire.

MARGARET I can’t help but imagine sorceresses flying amongst the branches.

MRS. WILCOX Yes! As a very young girl I believed a spirit lived inside the trunk. I would whisper wishes into the bark and wait for signs they’d come true.

MARGARET Wonderful!

MRS. WILCOX Later I learned the name is spelt W-Y-C-H, from the ancient Irish, meaning weak. Did your sister tell you about the pigs’ teeth?

MARGARET No. MRS. WILCOX The country people stuck them into the trunk long ago, and they think if they chew a piece of the bark it will cure toothache.

MARGARET

I love folklore.

MRS. WILCOX Do you think that the tree really did cure toothache, if one believed in it?

MARGARET Of course it did.

MRS. WILCOX I can remember cases—perhaps it would also cure… (she drifts) You see, I was born at Howards End. It was my mother’s property, and now it is my own.

MARGARET How wonderful!

MRS. WILCOX I wonder whether you ever think about yourself.

MARGARET I think of nothing else!

(MRS. WILCOX takes MARGARET’s hand) MRS. WILCOX I almost think…

MARGARET Yes? MRS. WILCOX I almost think you forget you’re a girl.

MARGARET Do you mean that I have been rude?

MRS. WILCOX I only meant that I am fifty-one and that to me—(she holds her head) I cannot put things clearly.

MARGARET Oh, I’ve got it—inexperience.

MRS. WILCOX Yes. Inexperience is the word.

MARGARET Of course, I have everything to learn. Life is very difficult and full of surprises. At all events, I’ve got as far as that. To be humble and kind, to go straight ahead, to love people rather than pity them— Oh goodness me, I’ve started preaching!

MRS. WILCOX You put the difficulties of life splendidly Miss Schlegel. It is just what I should like to say about them myself.

MARGARET I’m afraid they are easier to name than to untangle.

MRS.WILCOX (small pause) Have you a family home?

MARGARET No. We’ve been at Wickham Place all our lives, but it is just an ordinary house, nothing to speak of. Still, I shall miss it.

MRS.WILCOX Are you moving?

MARGARET Yes we must, in two years, when the lease expires. They mean to pull down Wickham Place and build flats like yours.

MRS. WILCOX But how monstrous, Miss Schlegel! I had no idea this was hanging over you. My dear, I am so sorry—Can what they call civilization be right if people mayn’t die in the room where they were born? Howards End was nearly pulled down once. It would have killed me. (rising) Miss Schlegel: come down with me to Howards End now. You have never seen it. I want to hear what you say about it, for you do put things so wonderfully.

MARGARET Later on I should love to, but it’s hardly the weather for such an expedition, and we ought to start when we’re fresh. Might I come some other day? (pause) MRS.WILCOX A thousand thanks, Miss Schlegel, for calling on me.

MARGARET None are required.

MRS. WILCOX Goodbye.

(MARGARET leaves MRS. WILCOX) MARGARET Margaret felt petty and awkward. Mrs. Wilcox had only one passion in life—her house—and the moment was sacred when she invited a friend to share it with her. Better to have tired themselves a little by the journey than coldly to reply: “Might I come some other day?”

Scene 12 (Wickham Place then train station) MARGARET Margaret lunched with Tibby. Usually inclined to silence, today he held forth: TIBBY Either Oxford or Cambridge. But Cambridge isn’t at all the right sort. And Oxford has a new department of Chinese studies.

MARGARET His account was not uninteresting, but she could not attend it now: her mind was occupied with Mrs. Wilcox and her Wych-Elm. Convinced that her friendship with Mrs. Wilcox stood on the precipice of real significance, Margaret determined to go to Howards End at once.

TIBBY Eventually there will be no borders— Reggie Stewart was telling me that in the future we’ll have a sort of world-wide community of communication—beyond telegraphs, even telephones. It will connect people in a way, but without them needing to be in the same room—

MARGARET She left Tibby mid-sentence and rushed to the station. There was a train to Hertfordshire in five minutes! (to an unseen ticket agent) The 2:55, a single please.

MRS. WILCOX Why, Miss Schlegel! Hello!

MARGARET I will come to Howards End now if I still may, Mrs. Wilcox.

MRS. WILCOX You are coming to sleep, dear, too. It is in the morning that my house is most beautiful. You are coming to stay. I cannot show you my meadow properly except at sunrise. These London fogs never spread far. I dare say my flowers are blooming in sunlight now, and you shall never repent joining them.

MARGARET I shall never repent joining you.

MRS. WILCOX It is the same. (small pause) Margaret—thank you for coming! You have kept me from brooding! I only wish I had something to give you worthy of your friendship.

(MARGARET takes MRS. WILCOX’s hand) MARGARET Oh Mrs.Wilcox, if I have helped you I don’t want anything in return. I want more people and places, not more things. (small pause) Shall we board?

(HENRY WILCOX appears) HENRY Why, hallo Ruth! What in the name of all that’s wonderful are you doing here?

MRS. WILCOX Oh, Henry dear!—here’s a lovely surprise, you’re back early! This is my husband—let me introduce—oh but I think you know Miss Schlegel.

HENRY (disinterested) Yes, yes. But how’s yourself, Ruth?

MRS. WILCOX Fit as a fiddle! Miss Schlegel, I’m afraid our little outing must be for another day.

MARGARET Another day, Mrs. Wilcox. Of course. But there would be no other day.

HENRY Come on, then. Homeward!

(HENRY and MRS. WILCOX leave, arm in arm, MRS. WILCOX leaning on him affectionately.

MARGARET watches them leave, then she imagines their departure, and we see it repeated silently exactly as it happened) MARGARET Margaret was alone. No one wanted her.

(MARGARET plays out the moment again twice: once with MRS. WILCOX snubbing HENRY and coming with her, once with the three of them leaving together.)