“Yes, you did.” Dan closed the door of Henry’s room and came to her. “I made a terrible mistake to give it to him. We’ve both made a mistake the way we’ve raised him. He’s a good boy; he’s got a fine nature and a noble soul. But he’s got with bad companions. He’s been——” He paused, and went on slowly, with difficulty: “He’s been—he’s been drinkin’, Lena.”
She said nothing, but stared at him blankly for a moment—then the stare became an angry one.
“We’ve got to change our whole way of treatin’ Henry,” her unhappy husband told her. “We’ve been all wrong. He—he got with bad companions——”
“Yes,” she interrupted angrily. “I should think he might, in a town like this!”
“My Lord! It ain’t the town’s fault. For heaven’s sake, don’t go back to that old story at a time like this!”
“Yes, I will,” she said. “The time’s come when you’ve got to let me take Henry and go where I want to.”
Dan looked dazed. “Go where you want to? Why, where do you want to go?”
“Anywhere I please!”
“But, my Lord! You were away seven months out of last year. You only got back from Europe last October! What do you——”
“I want to go and I want to take Henry with me! What’s just happened proves that I’m right. This is the wrong place for him.”