“Not unless she has proven herself unworthy of it.”
“Hasn’t she? Is a woman who is unfaithful to her husband—who is willing to live on the money given her by the man who made her so—is such a woman fit to bring up a child—to teach him to be straightforward, and honest, and good?”
“You use strong terms, Mr. Rogers. As I said before, I do not believe your wife has been unfaithful to you.”
“I do not refer to any specific act. Unfaithfulness is not alone a physical thing. She has fallen in love with another man. She has agreed to abandon her husband, and run away with him. She was willing to sacrifice even her child, by robbing him of his father. In one week more, but for this man’s death, she would have done all these things. Is not such a woman unfaithful? Is not that enough? Could any one act have made her more so? If your wife were to do these things, would you not call her unfaithful?”
“You refuse to forgive her, then?”
“No. I do not refuse to forgive her. I have told her that I am ready to do so, on one condition.”
“What is that condition, Mr. Rogers?”
“That she give up this man’s money.”
“Has she agreed?”