Just wait till I’m in my grave, then he’ll begin to see— ROBERT. Ah, leave it alone, mother! I’ve heard that hundreds of times. MRS SCHOLZ. Maybe! You’ll see too, and before very long either. ROBERT. Ah, mother, I don’t deny that you’ve had a lot to bear with through father. You’ve both suffered. But I don’t see why you— MRS SCHOLZ. Stuff and nonsense. I should like to know what has _he_ ever wanted for? ROBERT (_incautiously_). To be understood, if you will insist on knowing. MRS SCHOLZ. I can’t make myself cleverer than I am. ROBERT. Nobody asked you to try. Besides—it’s the merest folly to talk of it so much. MRS SCHOLZ. Now there’s an end of everything—(_Crying._) After all, it’s not my doing that he lies there ill, and— ROBERT. I never said it was. MRS SCHOLZ. You did. That’s what you _did_ say. ROBERT. Ah, mother—I’d better go. I—mother, I really can’t stand any more. MRS SCHOLZ. No! I should just like to know what I have to reproach myself with. I have a good conscience. ROBERT. Then keep it, in God’s name keep it! (_With a movement of self-defence_) Only, _leave off_. MRS SCHOLZ. You mean that money business, I suppose? ROBERT. I mean nothing. MRS SCHOLZ. My parents earned it hardly enough, no woman would have put up with it! Your father just pitched it out of window. ROBERT. But your uncle lied to you about it. MRS SCHOLZ. You can’t be sure of that. ROBERT. And father earned the whole over again. MRS SCHOLZ. He might as well have gambled with it. [_Robert laughs bitterly._ MRS SCHOLZ. I’m only a poor ignorant woman. Your father was always above me. His mother was quite a lady too. But my father was once as poor as a rat. I’ll never get the chill of poverty out of my blood! I can’t alter myself. Well, it’s all the same!—for the year or two of life that’s left me!—The Lord will deliver me in his own good time. ROBERT. I would rather be delivered _from_ the Lord. MRS SCHOLZ. For shame! What a scoundrelly speech! Delivered from the Lord.—I might as well take a dagger and stab myself here in the heart—Frightful!—Delivered from the Lord!—Where should I have been if it had not been for the Lord?—Are you really going away, Robert? ROBERT (_already on the stairs_). Oh, be quiet, mother! It’s peace I want, peace!— [_Goes up the stairs._ MRS SCHOLZ. Oh dear, dear—yes—amongst you all, it isn’t an easy life! (_To William who has remained the whole time at the table without paying attention to them_) Just think!—You!—Robert’s going! WILLIAM. All the same to me! MRS SCHOLZ. What are you sitting there for?—That’s no use. Do be sensible. WILLIAM (_sighing_). Ah, yes! MRS SCHOLZ. And sighing’s no use! Look at me, at my age—and if I were to squat myself down like you!—What’s done is done! There’s no changing it now. Look here! Read something! Get up, take a book and amuse yourself! WILLIAM (_sighing_).