OLIVER. Yes, by Jove, it is a bit rough on the governor.
SEPTIMA. Rough on all of us.
MARION. But your father has suffered most. You must always remember that.
ISOBEL. Poor William! Yes, it is hard on you. Your occupation’s gone.
WILLIAM. It is a terrible blow to us all, this dreadful news that you have given us. But you can understand that to me it is absolutely crushing.
ISOBEL (in a whisper). And to me? (They look at her in surprise.) What has it been to me?
WILLIAM. Well, as I was saying——
ISOBEL. You have enjoyed your life here, yes, every moment of it. If you hadn’t been secretary to Oliver Blayds, you would have been secretary to somebody else—it’s what you’re best fitted for. Yes, you have lived your life; you have had interests, a hundred interests every day to keep you active and eager.... (Almost to herself) But I say, what of me? What has my life been? Look at me now—what am I?—a wasted woman. I might have been a wife, a mother—with a man of my own, children of my own, in my own home. Look at me now...!
MARION. My dear, I never dreamt——
ISOBEL (eighteen years away from them all). He asked me to marry him. Tall and straight and clean he was, and he asked me to marry him. Ah, how happy we [241]should have been together, he and I—should we not have been happy? He asked me to marry him.