You've always tried to do me harm. Why?"
"Because I hate the sight of you," she answered quickly. "As you've
asked me, you shall have a truthful answer. You've never been
anything but a disgrace to us ever since you were a little boy. You
disgraced us at home and then abroad; now you've come back to
disgrace us here again."
"That's a lie," he repeated. "I've not disgraced anybody."
"Well, it won't be very long before you finish ruining that wretched
girl. The best you can do now is to marry her."
"I can't do that," he said. "I'm married already." She did not
answer that hut stared at him with amazement.
"But never mind that," he went on. "What if I am a bad lot? I don't
know what a bad lot is exactly, but if you mean that I've lived with
women and been drunk, and lost jobs because I didn't do the work,
and been generally on the loose, it's true, of course. But I meant
to live decently when I came home. Yes, I did. You can sneer as much
as you like. Why didn't you help me? You're my sister, aren't you?
And now I don't care what I do. You've all given me up. Well, give
me up, and I'll just go to bits as fast as I can go! If you don't
want me there are others who do, or at any rate the bit of money
I've got.
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