TIMBRELL. What does the fellow mean? LEONARD. You'd hardly believe it but I feel a kind of moral exaltation. [_EDGAR laughs._] Oh! yes, Edgar, I know your vast superiority but in this you're despicable through and through--all of you. No, Mother was beautifully kind for a moment just now. She asked Mary to sit down. [_Impetuously._] Do you like staying here, Mary? Why don't you go? MARY. I want to hear what you say. LEONARD. I've wronged you, as the saying is, but I don't wrong you with every instinct, at every hour of the day. After all, I'm the only member of this family that's achieved any kind of human relationship with you. To me you're not a servant. Listen to this--listen to Shakespeare: [_He declaims._] 'Why sweat they under burdens? Let their beds Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates Be season'd with such viands. You will answer, The slaves are ours.' I suppose that practically I'm as bad as any of you. It's just the idea. MARY. I don't understand what he's talking about. TIMBRELL. Nor anybody else. LEONARD. Mary lives in the kitchen and the attic; Mary lives on poorer food than ours when it isn't our leavings; the sheets on Mary's bed are coarser than ours-- TIMBRELL. Silence, sir! EDGAR. Shameful! MRS. TIMBRELL. What would you have us do? MARY. I'm making no complaint, ma'am. MRS. TIMBRELL. Not of him? MARY. I was as bad as him. LEONARD. She is not bad. She can't be bad. Anyone can see that who looks at her. MARY. Yes, I've acted bad. I couldn't face--I could never face--[_Her voice catches. MRS. TIMBRELL crosses over to her._] MRS. TIMBRELL. Come with me. You've been here long enough. LEONARD. Go with my mother, Mary. MARY. I can't make you out. You talk so fine and yet-- MRS. TIMBRELL. Come. MARY. [_Going, turns and says to LEONARD._] Why were you going away? TIMBRELL. Going away? MARY. He was packing his things. MRS. TIMBRELL. Why, Leonard? LEONARD. What a brute I am. MRS. TIMBRELL. You were going away? LEONARD. That's the kind of beast I am. TIMBRELL. I don't quite understand this. You were going away? Where? Why? LEONARD. Where doesn't matter. TIMBRELL. Why were you going? LEONARD. I wanted to get out of it. MRS. TIMBRELL. You didn't know. You didn't understand. LEONARD. Yes, I did. She told me. MRS. TIMBRELL. But, Leonard-- TIMBRELL. What! What! You were running away? You knew--you knew everything? LEONARD. Yes, I did. TIMBRELL. Shameful! Monstrous! LEONARD. I thought it the most sensible thing to do. I know it looks bad. TIMBRELL. He amazes me. I can't grasp it. What a coward! What an infamous coward! Had you no thought at all for this unfortunate girl? You never thought of any kind of reparation, I suppose? Reparation! By Heaven!--[_He stops for a moment, considering and then goes on but with something working in his mind._] Had you no consideration for your Mother--for any of us? Don't you see--don't you understand?