Sue—How can you say that? You know how gentle and sane he is with me—just like he used to be in the old days.
Doctor—You’re his last connecting link with things as they are—but that can’t last. On the other hand, I think that if we got him away from the sea, from this house, especially from this crazy cabin and the ship’s deck he had built up there—[He nods upward.]—that perhaps——
Sue—[With conviction.] No. It would kill him to leave it.
Doctor—Eh, well, my dear, one thing you’ve got to realize: Your father and Nat must be separated somehow. Nat’s going to pieces. He’s lost his job, he moons about this house, he takes no interest in anything but this craziness. I’ll bet he doesn’t believe that schooner is lost any more than your father does.
Sue—You mean he still hopes it may not be true. That’s only natural. He’s in San Francisco now tracing down the report again. He saw in the papers where the British freighter that found the derelict was in port again and he went to talk with the people on board. I’m hoping he’ll come back fully convinced, with the whole thing out of his mind.
Doctor—[Shaking his head—gravely.] I’ve watched him and talked with him—— Why, even your father seems to realize, in his twisted way, that he has a bad effect on Nat.
Sue—Yes, as I’ve told you before, he hasn’t spoken to Nat alone since the schooner sailed a year ago. And Nat sneaks about trying to spy on him—and I have to be always on the watch to keep them apart—— It’s terrible.
Doctor—You’ve got to persuade Nat to go away, Susan.
Sue—He won’t heed me—but I was thinking that now Danny is coming back, I’d get him——
Doctor—There’s another thing. You can’t continue to play slave to these two after you’re married.