SUE--So was I, Danny--but it can’t be this time. With Ma so weak, and no one to take care of her but me---- [_Shaking her head--in a tone of decision._] I couldn’t leave home now, Danny. It wouldn’t be right. I couldn’t feel really happy--until this thing--whatever it is--is settled between Pa and Ma and they’re just as they used to be again. [_Pleadingly._] You understand, don’t you, Danny? DREW--[_Soberly._] Why--surely I do, Sue. [_He pats her hand._] Only, it’s hard waiting. [_He sighs._] SUE--I know. It’s just as hard for me. DREW--I thought maybe I could help; but this isn’t anything anyone outside your family could mix in. [SUE _shakes her head. He goes on gloomily after a pause._] What’s the matter with Nat? Seems as if he ought to be able to step in and talk turkey to your Pa. SUE--[_Slowly._] You’ll find Nat changed, too, Danny--changed terribly. He’s caught the disease--whatever it is. You know how interested in his work he’s been ever since they put him in the designing department down in the shipyard? DREW--Yes. SUE--[_With emphasis._] Well, all that’s changed. He hates it now, or at least he says he does. And when he comes home, he spends all his time prowling around the dock here, talking with those three awful men. And what do you think he told me only the other day? That he was bound he’d throw up his job and make this voyage on the schooner. He even asked me to ask Pa to let him go. DREW--Your Pa doesn’t want him to, eh? SUE--Why, of course not! Leave a fine position he worked so hard to get just for this crazy notion! Pa’d never let him. He’s even ordered him to keep off the schooner and not to talk to those men. DREW--Funny Nat’d like to go to sea. He’s always seemed to want to fight shy of it. SUE--The terrible part is, he’s got Ma worried to death--as if she wasn’t upset enough already. She’s so afraid he’ll go--that Pa’ll let him at the last moment. She’s always pleading with Nat not to think of it--so that he keeps out of her way, too. Poor Ma! She’s only got me to talk to. DREW--Maybe I can help after all. I can talk to Nat. SUE--[_Shaking her head._] He’s not the same Nat, Danny.