"I don't see why you lived with him then."
"He'd behave himself better. I had a sort of influence over him. He was afraid of me, or ashamed, or something, and I stuck to him to keep him straight. But, oh! I hated it, and when he got going all right, I cut loose and came here."
"What sort is the old lady? W. C. T. U. and all that kind of thing, I suppose?"
"Something on that order."
The Oracle leaned forward until his chest came almost between his bent knees, as was his wont when he clinched his arguments.
"I suppose you've never figured it out that people of her way of thinking would call what little drinking you do at Mayfield 'drinking in low saloons?'"
By his silence Jimmie admitted that there was something in the position. Frank followed up his lead.
"So it may be nothing very bad after all. But let's suppose it is; suppose he has slid back into the worst of his old ways, is it going to pay to go on and break things all up for yourself, for the purpose of trying to bolster him up? It seems to me you would let your enthusiasm get away with your common sense. But it's your business, Jimmie. Only the thing that gets me is the blooming uselessness of it all. What can you do?"
"I can work."