This Happy Breed Page #12

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- I think I'll go to bed now, Ethel.

- All right, dear.

- How about the washing up?

- That's all right. Frank and me will do it.

Vi was looking a bit peaky, wasn't she?

Oh, she's worried about Joan, I think.

Ah, she'll get over it. Remember the trouble

we had with Queenie when she was tiny?

Yes, I do.

Sorry, I forgot.

You're lucky.

You're a funny woman, Ethel,

and no mistake.

I expect I am.

We're as God made us. I suppose there's

nothing much to be done about it.

Well, I wouldn't be so sure.

Being bitter about anybody

isn't a good thing...

let alone if it happens to be

your own daughter.

I'm not bitter. I just don't think

about her anymore, that's all.

That's one of the things I don't believe.

Well, don't let's talk about it anymore,

shall we?

I wish you'd get someone else

in place of Edie.

I don't need anyone now.

There's only the three of us.

[Chuckles] What anybody ever wanted

to marry her for beats me.

No reason why they shouldn't.

She was a good girl, a good worker.

Exactly the reason I married you.

"She may not be much to look at,"

I said to myself...

"but there's a worker if ever I saw one."

Oh!

Oh, Billy, what a shock you gave me.

Frank! Frank, Billy's here!

- Sorry, Mrs. Gibbons.

- I had no idea you was back.

I got in about an hour ago,

so I dropped in for a chat.

- Oh, well, go on in. I'll be round in a moment.

- Righto.

- Hello, Mr. Gibbons.

- Well, well, here's a surprise. Come on in.

- Got a couple of weeks leave.

- Go on.

Yeah. I've been transferred

from a cruiser to a destroyer.

- Do you like that?

- You bet I do.

Oh, Billy, I am glad to see you.

I'm sure your father is too.

It's been lonely for him by himself in that

house ever since your mother was taken.

Nora died, Ethel.

Nobody took her.

Ought to be ashamed of yourself,

talking like that in front of Billy.

Would you like me to make you a cup of tea?

It won't take a moment.

No, thanks, Mrs. Gibbons, no.

There's, uh -

There's something I want to talk to you about,

as a matter of fact.

- Yeah, both of you.

- What is it, son?

- Got a cigarette on you?

- Yeah.

- Left mine next door, eh.

- Here we are.

[Billy]

Thanks.

Well?

I feel a bit awkward, really.

I wanted Dad to come along and back me up,

but - [Chuckles] he wouldn't.

[Frank] A man your age hanging on

to his father's coattails.

I never heard of such a thing.

Here, what have you been up to?

What is it, Billy?

It's about Queenie.

What about her?

Does it still make you angry

even to hear her name?

I'm not angry.

Have you seen her, Billy?

Yes, I've seen her.

- How is she?

- Fine.

Well...

what was it you wanted to say

about Queenie, Billy?

I sympathize with how you feel, Mrs. Gibbons.

Really I do.

And what's more, she does too.

She knows what a wrong she did

in going off like that...

and it didn't take her long to realize it.

She hasn't had any too good a time,

you know.

The man she went off with

went back to his wife...

and left her stranded

in a sort of boarding house in Brussels.

How long was it before she found

another man to take her on?

[Frank]

Ethel.

A long time - over three years.

She's all right now then, isn't she?

Yes, she's all right now.

What sort of a bad time did she have?

How do you mean?

Trying to earn a living for herself.

You know, getting in and out of different jobs.

She showed dresses off

in a dressmaker shop for over a year...

then she got a job looking after some

English children, but that didn't last long.

Then she got ill with appendicitis

and was taken to hospital.

Where? Where was she taken to hospital?

How long ago?

Paris, about a year ago.

When she was in hospital, she picked up

with an old Scotswoman in the next bed.

A little later on, the two of them

started an old English tea room...

in Menton in the South of France -

you know, just for English visitors.

That's where I ran into her by accident.

We were doing a summer cruise, and the

ship I was in laid off there for a few days.

A couple of pals and I went ashore

for a cup of tea. There she was.

Is she there now?

- No, she isn't there now.

- Where is she then?

She's here.

Here?

[Frank]

How do you mean, here?

[Billy]

Next door with Dad.

Billy!

We were married last week

in the registry office in Plymouth.

[Ethel]

Married?

Well, I've always loved her, you know.

Always said I'd wait for her.

Oh, son. I can't believe it.

Oh, son.

You'll forgive her now,

won't you, Mrs. Gibbons?

I don't seem to have much choice, do I?

I always thought you'd like to have me

for a son.

Better late than never.

[Sobs]

That's what it is, isn't it?

Better late than never.

[Sobbing]

Oh, dear.

[Sobbing]

Shall I get you a little nip of something?

Yes, please.

Where is it?

In the sideboard cupboard.

[Sobbing]

- [Cupboard Opens]

- [Cap Opens]

[Drink Pours]

Hello, Mum.

So you've come back, have you?

You bad girl.

Yes, Mum.

[Voice Breaking]

A nice way to behave, I must say -

upsetting me like this.

Evening Standard. Chamberlain flies to Munich.

Read all about it. Paper!

Chamberlain flies to Munich.

Paper!

[Man Continues Shouting]

[Children Chattering]

Oh, just a minute, Mum.

Well, I must say, I'd just as soon be bombed

on me own two feet...

as crouching down in one of those.

Well, you've chosen a nice time

to be born, I will say.

[Kisses]

[Crowd Cheering]

[Singing, Indistinct]

[Loud Cheering]

[Cheering Fades]

I always knew it, you know.

- Always knew what?

- That there wouldn't be a war.

I thought there would be, I must say.

Otherwise I shouldn't have sent Sheila

and Joan down to Mrs. Marsh in Dorset.

I know you did, dear.

Your mother was worried, too,

about Queenie and little Frankie.

But I wasn't. Neither was Mrs. Wilmot.

Fancy that now.

Mrs. Wilmot laughed outright when

the woman came to try on her gas mask.

"Take that stupid thing away," she said.

Just like that, quite simply.

- The woman was furious.

- I'm not surprised.

Hello, Vi.

- Good evening, Frank.

- Where's your mother?

In the kitchen. She's been upstairs

with Queenie and the baby.

Nothing wrong with His Lordship,

is there?

Oh, no. He's fine. Queenie's not feeling

any too good, so she went to bed.

Oh. I'll pop up and see her in a minute.

Did you see anything of the crowds?

I did.

[Sighs]

We heard him arrive at the airport

on the wireless.

So did I.

Sam's meeting me at

the Strand Corner House a little later on.

We thought we'd have a look

at the crowds. Ought to be exciting.

Mmm. It's exciting, all right -

if you like seeing a lot of people...

yelling their heads off without the faintest

idea what they're yelling about.

Oh, how can you, Frank? They're cheering

'cause they've been saved from war.

Yeah. I'll cheer about that

when it's proved to me.

You wouldn't care if there was

another war.

You're one of those people

who think it doesn't matter...

that millions and millions

of innocent people should be bombed.

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