ISOBEL. Is there a special manner of a man whose wife died ten years ago which I ought to have recognised?

ROYCE (laughing). Well, no. But one always feels that a fact with which one has lived for years must have impressed itself somehow on others.

ISOBEL. I didn’t know....

ROYCE (suddenly). I wish I could persuade you that you were quite wrong not to take any of this money.

ISOBEL. Am I “quite wrong”?

ROYCE (shaking his head). No. That’s why it’s so hopeless my trying to persuade you.... What are you going to do?

ISOBEL (rather sadly). Aren’t I a “born nurse”?

ROYCE. You tied my hand up once.

ISOBEL (smiling). Well, there you are.... Oh, I daresay it’s just pride, but somehow I can’t take the money. The others can; you were right about that—I was wrong; but they have not been so near to him as I have.... I thought the whole world was at an end at first. But now——

ROYCE. But now you don’t.