Summary
Horace and Addie are left alone and Horace says that he thinks it's good for Alexandra to hear about the tragedies Birdie has suffered, so that she can be wiser in the future. "How else is she going to know that she's got to get away?" he says, before saying to Addie, "Pretty soon, there'll be nobody to help her but you."
Horace asks Addie if she will take Alexandra away when the time comes, saying that he will arrange it so that no one can stop them when the time comes for Addie and Alexandra to escape. He tells her he's going to revise his will, and that he would like to leave some money for her, and that he has left an envelope with 1700 dollars in it upstairs for her.
Cal comes in and tells Horace that he ran his errand for him and that Leo was upset to hear that Horace has his safety deposit box. As Regina returns home, Addie wants to bring him away to rest, but Horace insists on staying in the room to talk to Regina, even though he isn't feeling well. Regina enters and tells Horace to go back to his section of the house, but he wants to tell her that her brothers invested his bonds in the mill without his consent. Regina does not believe him, even as she looks at the safety deposit box, but he insists that the bonds were stolen.
"Leo took the bonds," Horace says, but Regina does not believe him. She wants to know why he's waited so long to bring it up and wants to hold the incident over their heads as leverage for the deal. Horace has another idea, however, and suggests, "I'm going to let them keep the bonds—as a loan from you." He hints that the Hubbard brothers will reap all the profits and Regina will get nothing. He then tells her that he's making a new will leaving her all of the bonds and leaving the rest to Alexandra.
"You hate me very much," Regina says to her husband, which he denies. She tells him she's always had contempt for him, and that she was lonely, because when her father died she wanted the world, but he left all his money to Ben and Oscar. She tells Horace that she had hoped he would become a more ambitious businessman, but he remained a country clerk his whole career. As she belittles him, Horace begins to feel ill, and asks Regina why she never left him.
Cruelly, Regina tells Horace that the only positive part of their marriage is the fact that he is going to die soon. As Horace goes to take his medicine, he accidentally drops the bottle, and asks Regina to fetch Addie, but Regina does not move. He panics and tries to call to Addie, before leaping towards the stairs. There, he suffers a heart attack, but Regina does nothing.
After a moment, Regina calls to everyone. Addie runs to fetch a doctor, as Oscar, Leo and Ben come in. Leo tells his father and uncle that Horace knows about the bonds and called for his lawyer and another banker, before pointing out the box on the table now. The men fight about the theft and whether anyone knows. Ben tells Leo that if Regina asks about the bonds, to say that Horace lent them to him.
Regina comes in to tell them that Horace has had a bad attack and is unconscious. She then confronts her brothers and Leo, telling them that Horace told her about the fact that Leo stole the bonds. Regina tells them that Horace planned to say that the bonds were a gift from her and give the rest of his money to Alexandra. Now, however, she strikes a bargain with her brothers: "...if he doesn't live I shall want seventy-five per cent in exchange for the bonds." She then adds, "And if I don't get what I want I am going to put all three of you in jail."
As they discuss this, Alexandra comes onto the landing, listening in. When they notice her, they realize that Horace has died, and begin to act contrite. Alexandra looks at each of them and asks if they loved Horace. She asks Regina why Horace was on the stairs when he suffered the attack, but before Regina can answer, Ben and Oscar begin taunting her, telling her that she will never be able to prove that they stole. She threatens her brothers and they eventually agree to her terms.
Regina tells her brothers that she's going to Chicago, and the men leave. When they have left, Regina asks Alexandra what she wanted to talk about. She notes that Alexandra is acting strange and says, "I'll make the world for you the way I wanted it to be for me." Then she notes that Alexandra is sitting and staring just like Birdie. As Regina excuses herself, Alexandra tells her that she is not going to go to Chicago with her. She talks about the fact that Horace wanted her to leave her mother.
Regina tries to remain unfazed by her daughter's abandonment, but before going upstairs asks Alexandra if she wants to sleep in her room with her. "Are you afraid Mama?" Alexandra asks, and Regina leaves. Addie squeezes Alexandra's arm, proud of her.
Analysis
The Hubbards, who are framed as ruthless and greedy business people throughout much of the play, are now framed as more of an explicit threat, when Horace reveals to Addie that he has always wanted to show Alexandra that she needs to get away from them. After Birdie tells Alexandra how horrible the Hubbards have been to her, Horace believes that this reality check will do his young daughter good, spurring her to get away from the abuse of her mother's family. "She can even hate me when I'm dead, if she'll only learn to hate and fear this," Horace says, rather dramatically, which broadcasts just how much he wants to show Alexandra that the Hubbards are a family to be escaped, rather than absorbed into.
Horace's illness adds a dimension of suspense to the plot of the play, because he knows that his death is imminent and so much of the plot hangs in the balance and is in his control. He wants to prevent Alexandra from entering into a loveless and likely abusive relationship with her cousin, Leo, and he also wants to prevent the erection of the Hubbard's cotton mill with his money. As Regina returns home, Addie tries to bring Horace to his room to conserve his energy, knowing that Regina will only exacerbate his bad health, but Horace insists on staying, knowing that he is the only one who can make sure the Hubbards do less damage with their greedy ways.
While Regina has simply been a cruel and villainous figure throughout the play, we get more of a window into her psychology in this section of the play and see her as more sympathetic than first suggested. She reveals that all her life, she has wanted to feel some sense of control over her own destiny—"I wanted the world"—but that she was never afforded the opportunities her brothers got, because of her gender. She is no less villainous—her contempt for Horace and her snobbish avarice remain morally contemptible—but for the first time in the play, we are granted a window into her psychology, the fact that she has felt stifled by the fact of her gender.
Moments after painting a mildly sympathetic portrait of herself, Regina assumes an even more cruel position. She tells Horace that the only positive element of their marriage is the fact that he is sickly and is going to die before her. "I've always been lucky," she says about her husband's imminent death. We can see clearly at this moment that Regina is not only greedy and grasping for material wealth, but has an almost murderous contempt for the man she's married. She is the image of a woman corrupted by greed.
Regina sacrifices all moral sense in order to get what she wants. Her greed brings her a large fortune and the economic autonomy that she has longed for her whole life. However, it also costs her a great deal as well. By the end, her daughter Alexandra has seen what a horrible person Regina is, and decided to abandon her mother. Regina may have managed to get what she wants, but she has lost human connection as a result, and while she keeps up a facade of resilience and cold poise, Alexandra's refusal to accept her gifts leads to a devastating isolation.
