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but he only got mad when I told him. He was too proud to ask anything, he said.

—Proud? To ask me? [He jumps to his feet and paces nervously back and forth.] I can’t understand the way you’ve acted. Didn’t you see how sick he was getting? Couldn’t you realize—why, I nearly dropped in my tracks when I saw him! He looks—[He shudders.]—terrible! [With fierce scorn.] I suppose you’re so used to the idea of his being delicate that you took his sickness as a matter of course. God, If I’d only known!

—[Without emotion.] A letter takes so long to get where you were—and we couldn’t afford to telegraph. We owed everyone already, and I couldn’t ask Ma. She’d been giving me money out of her savings for the last two years till she hadn’t much left. Don’t say anything to Rob about it. I never told him. He’d only be mad at me if he knew. But I had to, because—God knows how we’d have got on if I hadn’t.

—You mean to say [His eyes seem to take in the poverty-stricken appearance of the room for the first time.] You sent that telegram to me collect. Was it because [ nods silently. pounds on the table with his fist.] Good God! And all this time I’ve been—why I’ve had everything! [He sits down in his chair and pulls it close to —impulsively.] But—I can’t get it through my head. Why? Why? What has happened? How did it ever come about? Tell me!