MARGARET

But afterward?

ROGER

Well, a year ago I began to hear things said again.  And then I found letters and bills.  It was the same thing all over.  He hadn’t kept his word.

MARGARET

But what did he say?

ROGER

I let it go for weeks, hoping he would say something.  But never a word.

MARGARET

He loved you so.  How he must have suffered!

ROGER

Yes, I suppose he did suffer.  But if he cared so for me why did he try to keep it hidden, the one thing I would hate most?

MARGARET

That was his way.  It made him ashamed.

ROGER

Well, he couldn’t keep it dark forever.  Mother almost found out.

MARGARET

Almost found out?

ROGER

Yes.  So of course I stepped in.  We had a frightful row.

MARGARET

When was that?

ROGER

Six months ago.  I got him clear.  It was hard—­this time the woman almost got him.

MARGARET

Oh!

ROGER

I helped him.  But I did it on one condition—­that he go to work.

MARGARET

Work?  What about his music?

ROGER

That’s what he said.  But I asked him if he had thought about his music when he got into these scrapes.  He couldn’t say a word.  So it was all arranged for him to go into my office, right under my eye, when mother was taken sick.  Then she wanted him to stay near her, so....  And then she died.  And the accident.  Well I don’t see what more I could have done.

MARGARET

No....  Of course, it wasn’t as if you turned against him.  And the office—­he was to pay you back that way?

ROGER

Pay me back?  Why, if he could, naturally; but that wasn’t my idea, that was only incidental.  My idea was to get him into the habit of hard work.

MARGARET

But he always did work!

ROGER