ANDREW. (_harshly_) Why didn’t you let me know--cable me? Do you want him to die, all of you? I’m damned if it doesn’t look that way! (_His voice breaking_) Poor old chap! To be sick in this out-of-the-way hole without anyone to attend to him but a country quack! It’s a damned shame! RUTH. (_dully_) I wanted to send you word once, but he only got mad when I told him. He was too proud to ask anything, he said. ANDREW. 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! RUTH. (_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 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. ANDREW. 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---- (RUTH _nods silently._ ANDREW _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_ RUTH’S--_impulsively_) But--I can’t get it through my head. Why? Why? What has happened? How did it ever come about? Tell me! RUTH. (_dully_) There’s nothing much to tell. Things kept getting worse, that’s all--and Rob didn’t seem to care. He never took any interest since way back when your Ma died. After that he got men to take charge, and they nearly all cheated him--he couldn’t tell--and left one after another. Then after Mary died he didn’t pay no heed to anything any more--just stayed indoors and took to reading books again. So I had to ask Ma if she wouldn’t help us some. ANDREW. (_surprised and horrified_) Why, damn it, this is frightful! Rob must be mad not to have let me know. Too proud to ask help of _me_! What’s the matter with him in God’s name? (_A sudden, horrible suspicion entering his mind_) Ruth! Tell me the truth. His mind hasn’t gone back on him, has it? RUTH. (_dully_) I don’t know. Mary’s dying broke him up terrible--but he’s used to her being gone by this, I s’pose. ANDREW. (_looking at her queerly_) Do you mean to say _you’re_ used to it? RUTH. (_in a dead tone_) There’s a time comes--when you don’t mind any more--anything.